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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical energy crisis caused by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the crisis so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by attacking tankers on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, promising to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to address the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain not under administrative command.