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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges across the nation due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a embargo on fuel imports implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of staff and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The military government had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a army council under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, promising to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

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

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has employed foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.