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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a blockade on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister stated on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of staff and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by targeting tankers on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to tackle the instability.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.