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Mali has suspended educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, explaining that the travel of personnel and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The military government had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

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

The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to combat the instability.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.