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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute energy crisis caused by a blockade on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

Top education official stated on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that educational activities could continue on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a restriction by attacking tankers on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing security concerns.

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

Mali is currently ruled by a army council under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the nation remain beyond state authority.