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Mali has closed schools and universities across the nation due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a restriction on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of staff and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the ruling council has employed foreign fighters to combat the violence.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.