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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe energy crisis caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official declared on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by targeting tankers on key routes.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, promising to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.