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Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of employees and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had previously assured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The military government had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to address the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in previously to deal with the increasing militant activity.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.