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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis caused by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.

Top education official announced on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the travel of employees and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a army council headed by the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.