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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

The military government had previously promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing safety issues.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had popular support when it took power, promising to address the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to address the insecurity.

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