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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a severe energy crisis caused by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the transportation of employees and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by targeting tankers on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

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

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in previously to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain not under administrative command.