Rioters took to the black-out hit streets ofCubaas the Communist government revealed its fuel reserves were exhausted. Hundreds of Cubans blocked roads in the capital, Havana, shouting "switch on the lights" in protest at power cuts.
The island country's energy grid suffered a major failure on Thursday, severing power to Cuba’s eastern provinces, according to local authorities. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the energy situation as "tense" a day earlier. His comment came after supplies of oil delivered by aRussianvessel in late March ran out. Cuba produces barely 40% of the fuel it needs to power its economy.
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Power cuts in Havana, where authorities have been rationing energy, stretched to 24 consecutive hours on Thursday.
Cubans in parts of the city banged pots and pans and set fire to rubbish bins to protest the blackouts the day before.
Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy appeared on Cuban television to describe the energy situation as "critical".
While Cuba's power grid is crumbling, the government has also blamed the outages on US sanctions after PresidentDonald Trumpin January warned of tariffs on any country selling or sending oil to Cuba.
Russiaannounced plans to send a second fuel ship to Cuba in early April. According to Russian news reports, the oil tanker left the port of Vysotsk in January, but it has been stuck in the same spot in the Atlantic for several weeks.
Blackouts have led to reduced working hours and food going off as fridges stop working. In some cases, hospitals have even had to cancel operations.
Source: Daily Express :: World Feed
