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Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, explaining that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could resume on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

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

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

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