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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical energy crisis resulting from a embargo on energy resources implemented by militant groups.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the movement of employees and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been forming around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The military government had public backing when it took power, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.

Both have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to combat the instability.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.