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Mali has suspended schools 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 declared on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of staff and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had previously reassured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating safety issues.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a army council led by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.