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Mali has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a blockade on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of personnel and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month reassured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.

These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.