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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and universities across the nation due to a critical energy crisis caused by a blockade on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the situation so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The military government had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to address the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.