Syrian electricity and internet 'gradually returning' after power cut

Electricity is returning gradually to Syria after a sudden cut on Thursday with the ministry for electricity hoping to completely restore power by midnight.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

03 March, 2016

The cause of the sudden power cut has not been identified [Getty]

Syria's electricity network is "gradually returning," Syria's state news agency has reported after the country was hit by a blackout that hit all parts of the country.

The ministry is working to restore the network's earlier capacity by midnight, the sourced confirmed, while internet connections across the country have been fully restored.

Internet services returned to normal after being "partially cut due to part of the network's unexpected malfunction", Syria's state mobile provider Syrian Telecom confirmed on Thursday.

Emergency work was carried out to restore the sudden damage to one of the network hubs, said Ahmed Simbel, an engineer at Syrian Telecom.

The cause of the sudden power cut had not been identified.

"Attempt to find out the cause of the outage have begun," the source told SANA earlier on Thursday.

Since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, various areas across the country have experienced intermittent power outages as a result of clashes or air strikes.

Many Syrians now rely on generators for power.

The power cut comes as Syria enters the sixth day of a shaky ceasefire agreement on Thursday.

Violations were reported by the Syrian opposition who said that several airstrikes continue to hit central and northern parts of the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also confirmed several airstrikes hit central and northern Syria on Sunday.

The ceasefire agreement does not include territory held by the Islamic State [IS] group and al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, which together control more than half of Syria.