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Mali has closed schools and universities throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official announced on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by targeting tankers on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would depart Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta led by the military leader, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been deployed in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to address the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain outside government control.