Power blackout hits Sudan for several hours ARTICLECOMMENTS (1) EmailPrintSave
August 23, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A major blackout on Tuesday evening left most of Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, without power for hours fueling speculations and rumors throughout the day. Electricity slowly started returning approximately seven hours later which came during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and amid soaring temperatures that reached a high of 42 °C (107 °F). The director of Sudan’s electricity board Ga’far Ali al-Bashir said the outage was due to the introduction of new infrastructure aimed at improving the efficiency of electrical supply of Al-Shamaliya (Northern) state. This however led to interruptions in other states as well, he said. It is not clear why this was not communicated to customers in advance. Bashir told reporters that they are attempting to install an adapter with an additional capacity of 150 Mega volt to improve the efficiency of supply in Al-Shamaliya state. He said engineers have made a major effort for the return of electricity after the completion of a gradual introduction of generating units feeding the national network. Rumors in Khartoum said that Sudan people Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) led by by Blue Nile governor Malik Agar took over Ruseiris power station which is one of the major source of electricity for the entire Sudan. The Sudanese army and SPLA, military wing of SPLM-N, are fighting since last June in South Kordofan. Today Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir announced a unilateral ceasefire after rejecting it in the past and insisting on a military solution. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
