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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of employees and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

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

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a takeover in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it took power, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has employed private military contractors to address the instability.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.