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Mali has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

Top education official declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the transportation of employees and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the crisis so that classes could continue on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

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

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council led by the military leader, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.

Both have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted foreign fighters to address the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.