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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the travel of staff and students had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, notably in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by striking tankers on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had previously promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening energy crisis and growing security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in previously to address the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.