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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until November 9th, noting that the movement of staff and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could continue on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by attacking tankers on key routes.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.