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Mali has suspended schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of staff and students had been impacted by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network enforced a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been forming around petrol stations in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions 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 armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain not under administrative command.