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Mali has closed schools and universities across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of employees and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could resume on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It explained that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to address the protracted safety emergency triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.