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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that educational activities could resume on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the ruling council has employed Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.