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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a embargo on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The military government had previously promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would depart the country amid the worsening energy crisis and growing security concerns.

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

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council under the leadership of the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, promising to deal with the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to address the violence.

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