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Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a restriction on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister declared on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of staff and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

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

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

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had public backing when it took power, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been deployed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.