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Mali has suspended educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a critical energy crisis resulting from a blockade on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of employees and pupils had been affected by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in previously to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.