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Mali has suspended educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical energy crisis caused by a embargo on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official announced on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of personnel and students had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

The junta-led administration had previously assured 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 the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would depart Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is now led by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a coup in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been sent in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to combat the instability.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.