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Mali has closed schools and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister declared on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking tankers on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council led by the military leader, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, promising to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

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

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has employed foreign fighters to combat the violence.

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