Nationwide power blackout hits war-torn Syria

Widespread outages reported across the country, limited Internet access due to ‘unexpected malfunction’

By AFP 3 March 2016, 4:54 pm

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Syrian children walk past heavily damaged buildings in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern edge of the capital Damascus, on the first day of the cease-fire agreement, February 27, 2016. (AFP/Sameer al-Doumy)

War-torn Syria was hit Thursday by a nationwide power cut, state television reported, but the cause was not immediately known.

“Electricity has been cut across all provinces and teams are trying to determine the reason for this unexpected cut,” the station reported, citing a source within the electricity ministry.

Damascus residents said power in the capital had been out since early afternoon and that mobile Internet connections from some private providers were also not working.

Syria’s state mobile provider said its Internet service had been “partially cut due to part of the network unexpectedly malfunctioning.”

Since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, various areas across the country have experienced intermittent power outages as a result of clashes or airstrikes and many regularly rely on generators for power.

Syria’s parliament had on Monday called in electricity minister Imad Khamis for a special hearing on the power sector.

Khamis told parliamentarians that the cost of “direct damage” to the country’s power stations and the electricity network from 2011 until the end of 2015 was estimated $3.75 billion.

In statements carried by Syria’s state news agency SANA, Khamis said five out of the 13 main power stations in Syria had been “directly damaged” in the war.

More than 270,000 people — among them more than 79,000 civilians — have died in Syria since its conflict erupted in March 2011.

On Saturday, a ceasefire deal brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect in areas of Syria where the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group and Al-Qaeda’s affiliate Al-Nusra Front are not deployed.