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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of staff and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had previously reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a army council led by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.