Since August 15, Tripoli and several other cities across western and southern Libya have been plunged into a total blackout. The outage, which has disrupted water distribution, telecommunications, industrial activity and even operations at the capital’s airport, has deepened an energy crisis that has fueled weeks of growing anger toward Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s Government of National Unity.
The current blackout is not an isolated incident. It follows an explosion on August 15 near the Zawiya power station in western Libya, which knocked out several generation units and collapsed the electricity network across much of the western region. That episode came after weeks of mounting strain on the national grid, including a first widespread blackout on July 18, which the General Electricity Company attributed to a failure on two high voltage transmission lines.
Since mid-July, power cuts have become a daily occurrence in several regions of the country, regularly lasting six to ten hours, and sometimes longer in parts of southern Tripoli. The crisis stems from a growing imbalance between insufficient production and surging demand, worsened by a heatwave that pushed temperatures in the capital above 48 degrees Celsius.
The energy crisis first triggered a civil disobedience movement in late July, led by the Souq Al Jumaa movement and joined by activists in Tajoura and Janzour. Hundreds of residents, mostly young men, blocked major roads, burned tyres and shut down public buildings across Tripoli, including the offices of state telecoms operator Libyana in the Souq Al Joumaa district. Protesters also dumped truckloads of earth outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to block access to the building, while five ministries and the anti corruption authority were forced to close under pressure from the unrest.
The movement escalated further in late July when groups of protesters stormed the Mellitah oil and gas complex, forcing the National Oil Corporation to suspend part of its production and cutting off the gas supply feeding several power stations. The General Electricity Company warned at the time of a risk of total grid collapse, before the Dbeibah government ordered defense ministry forces to secure the site and restore gas supplies.
Beyond electricity, protesters’ grievances have broadened to include the deterioration of public services generally, the rising cost of living, fuel and cash shortages, and difficulties accessing medicine. Some local groups, such as the one in Tajoura, are now calling for an outright boycott of government administration, while other demonstrators are openly demanding the resignation of the Government of National Unity, or even the dissolution of the country’s existing political institutions altogether.
Amid the ongoing crisis, former minister Issa al Touyjir summed up the prevailing frustration, denouncing what he called a corrupt government that is failing to manage the situation and lacks any sensitivity to or interest in citizens’ suffering. Authorities in Tripoli have repeatedly had to request Egypt’s help in recent weeks to restore power through interconnection lines between the two countries, notably after July’s blackout.
The crisis extends well beyond technical failures, however. It was preceded last week by several drone strikes of still unknown origin targeting strategic infrastructure in the city of Zawiya. For several observers, the combination of these security incidents and the collapse of the electricity grid represents a serious test for the American backed initiative aimed at unifying the country, which rests on a fragile balance between Dbeibah’s camp, which controls western Libya, and the forces of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, dominant in the east. Growing distrust of the authorities in Tripoli could, according to these analysts, further undermine that fragile reconciliation effort.
As of now, Libyan authorities have not detailed either the exact duration of the ongoing outage or the precise technical causes behind it, as the population of western and southern Libya continues, for a third consecutive month, to live by the rhythm of power cuts and the hum of private generators.