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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, explaining that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by targeting tankers on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The military government had previously assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating security concerns.

It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The military government had popular support when it took power, vowing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.