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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of staff and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.

It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it took power, vowing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to address the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.

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