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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a severe energy crisis caused by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by targeting tankers on key routes.

Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in previously to address the increasing militant activity.

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

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.