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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical energy crisis caused by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister declared on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and pupils had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had previously reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would depart Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in 2021.

The junta had public backing when it came to authority, committing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.