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Mali has suspended schools and universities throughout the country due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the travel of personnel and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.

It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.

Both have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.

However, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain beyond state authority.