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Mali has closed schools and colleges throughout the country due to a acute energy crisis triggered by a restriction on energy resources enforced by militant groups.

Top education official declared on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the transportation of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

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

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by targeting tankers on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in recently.

The junta had popular support when it assumed control, committing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.