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Mali has closed educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a critical energy crisis caused by a embargo on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

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

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the situation so that academic sessions could continue on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a restriction by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The military government had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration headed by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to tackle the instability.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.