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Mali has suspended schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by militant groups.

The Education Minister stated on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously reassured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has continued.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the instability.

However, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain outside government control.