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Mali has closed schools and universities throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a embargo on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of employees and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal 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 military government had previously assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain not under administrative command.