Mauritania’s national electricity company, SOMELEC, has attributed the general power outage that affected several parts of the country on Tuesday, 10th March, evening to an unexpected failure on a high-voltage transmission line.
According to the company, the blackout disrupted electricity supply in Nouakchott, Nouadhibou, and several communities along the transmission corridor late Tuesday night into Wednesday, March 11, morning, shortly after the iftar meal during Ramadan.
SOMELEC said the disruption occurred on a 225-kilovolt transmission line linking Rosso and Nouakchott, which forms part of the network operated by the Senegal River Basin Development Organization. The company noted that the fault caused a sudden interruption in electricity supply across the affected areas.
SOMELEC said its technical teams worked overnight to gradually restore power using local generation capacity and a parallel electricity line connecting Mauritania to Senegal. The company added that authorities managing the regional power system have begun repairs on the damaged infrastructure and reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring stable electricity supply across the network.
