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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by militant groups.

Top education official declared on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, 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 temporary issue, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and escalating security concerns.

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

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in 2021.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to combat the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to combat the violence.

However, the militant uprising has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.