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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges across the nation due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of personnel 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 continue on November 10th.

For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on key routes.

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

Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in two years ago.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been deployed in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain outside government control.