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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official announced on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.