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Mali has suspended educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage caused by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of personnel and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.