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Mali has suspended educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official announced on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

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

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been forming around fuel outlets in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The military government had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted foreign fighters to address the instability.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.