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Mali has closed educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

Top education official announced on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of personnel and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by targeting tankers on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.