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Mali has suspended schools and colleges across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a embargo on energy resources implemented by militant groups.

The Education Minister stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the travel of employees and students had been impacted by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had in recent days promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.