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Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the travel of staff and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had previously promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has endured.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted 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 led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to address the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to combat the instability.

However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.