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Mali has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister declared on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and students had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials 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 petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.

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

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.