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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges across the nation due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a embargo on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on state television that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of personnel and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that classes could resume on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been stationed in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.