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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of staff and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has endured.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, committing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has employed private military contractors to combat the violence.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain beyond state authority.