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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and students had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

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

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The junta had public backing when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.