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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until November 9th, explaining that the travel of staff and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by attacking tankers on primary roads.

Mali is landlocked, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

These forces have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.