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

Minister of Education declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had in recent days promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been deployed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to combat the violence.

However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.