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Lebanon restores power supply after a complete blackout

| Updated: October 11, 2021 12:52:07


People shopping at a grocery store under a portable electric light during a power cut near Bhamdoun of Lebanon on Saturday –Reuters file photo People shopping at a grocery store under a portable electric light during a power cut near Bhamdoun of Lebanon on Saturday –Reuters file photo

Lebanon's power supplies were back to normal on Sunday after a blackout the previous day when the country's two biggest power stations shut down because of a fuel shortage.

The closure piled further hardship on Lebanese struggling with job losses, soaring prices and hunger wrought by the country's worsening financial meltdown, reports Reuters.

The ministry said it had received central bank approval for $100 million in credit to issue fuel import tenders for electricity generation, adding the country's grid had resumed supplying the same amount of electricity as before the complete outage. read more

On Saturday, Lebanon's two largest power stations, Zahrani and Deir Ammar plants, shut down due to fuel shortages, bringing the Lebanese power network to a complete halt.

The Lebanese army agreed on Saturday evening to provide 6,000 kilolitres of gas oil distributed equally between the two power stations, the state electricity company said in a statement reported by the official National News Agency.

Lebanon has been paralysed by an economic crisis that deepened as supplies of imported fuel have dried up. The Lebanese currency has fallen by 90 per cent since 2019.

Many Lebanese normally rely on private generators that run on diesel, although that is in short supply.

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