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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical energy crisis resulting from a restriction on fuel imports implemented by militant groups.

Minister of Education announced on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

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

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.

It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it assumed control, promising to address the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.