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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a restriction by attacking tankers on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around petrol stations in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing 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 unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it took power, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.

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

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