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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage caused by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been stationed in previously to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to tackle the violence.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.