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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by militant groups.

The Education Minister stated on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently grown silent.

The military government had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.

However, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain outside government control.