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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of personnel and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The military government had popular support when it assumed control, committing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to combat the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain beyond state authority.