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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by militant groups.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The military government had public backing when it took power, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.