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Mali has suspended schools and colleges across the nation due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a army council led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, promising to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.