Yemen’s capital city Sanaa was one of many areas plunged into darkness last weekend following a 19 September attack on exposed power lines in the country’s central Marib province. The attack resulted in the shutting down of the key 450MW gas-fired power station supplying large parts of Yemen’s Western districts, officials said, and came less than 24 hours after a similar attack on another part of the grid.
Such attacks have become commonplace in Yemen, more so since the political crisis of 2011 which brought about the eventual downfall of former President ‘Ali ‘Abd Allah Salih in February of the following year. Unremitting anti-government demonstrations have since exposed a number of underlying weaknesses in the Yemeni economy – namely the ability of its poorest citizens to access basic commodities. (CONTINUED - 1381 WORDS)
