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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe energy crisis caused by a blockade on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been affected by the blockade.

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

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, particularly in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The military government had in recent days promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain outside government control.