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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official declared on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the movement of employees and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The military government had previously assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to tackle the violence.

However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain outside government control.