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Mali has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a blockade on energy resources enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister declared on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, committing to deal with the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to address the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.