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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and universities throughout the country due to a acute energy crisis caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the transportation of staff and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in the main city in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would depart Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.

The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to tackle the instability.

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