Fragile truce is holding but Syria hit by nationwide electricty blackout

A nationwide electricity blackout has brought war-torn Syria to a standstill. Power was brought down without warning across the country shortly after lunch time. Mobile internet connections from some private providers were also not working. The cause of the crash was not clear but maintenance crews were reportedly working on fixing the problem. Electricity blackouts have been frequent in the course of Syria’s five-year conflict but it is rare for the whole country to be affected.

The electricity network has been cut in all governorates. Attempts to find out the cause of the outage have begun

Ministry for Electricity source

Meanwhile, the fragile truce is holding in the country after six days, Syria’s UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday. Incidents have been contained to the provinces of Homs, Hama, Latakia and Damascus, he added. Earlier, Amnesty International claimed Russian and Syrian government forces were targeting hospitals ahead of the fragile ceasefire. It said it had “compelling evidence” of at least six deliberate attacks on medical facilities in the Aleppo governorate over the past 12 weeks.

The situation is fragile, success is not guaranteed but progress is visible

Syria’s UN envoy Staffan de Mistura

syria electricity