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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of staff and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been winding around petrol stations in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days reassured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a army council headed by the military leader, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it took power, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been deployed in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.