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Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.

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

Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The military government had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has continued.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who took control in a takeover in recently.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.

These forces have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to address the instability.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.