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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and universities across the nation due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a blockade on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister declared on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the movement of employees and learners had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

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

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta led by the military leader, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, promising to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to address the instability.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain outside government control.