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Mali has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of personnel and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He asserted that the administration were “making every effort” to end the situation so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had previously reassured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a takeover in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in previously to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain beyond state authority.