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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a blockade on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the administration were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration led by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain not under administrative command.