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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical energy crisis caused by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by militant groups.

Top education official announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of staff and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a embargo by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to combat the increasing militant activity.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.