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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 petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the crisis so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

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

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had popular support when it took power, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused 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 stationed in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.