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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a embargo by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain not under administrative command.