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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a restriction on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister declared on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

He asserted that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that classes could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The military government had in recent days promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would depart the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the violence.

However, the militant uprising has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain outside government control.