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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical energy crisis resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

Top education official declared on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had public backing when it took power, committing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in previously to combat the growing rebellion.

These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to address the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.