Senegal was struck by a nationwide power outage on Thursday, caused by an incident at a power station in the capital, Dakar. The blackout, a rare occurrence in the West African country, began around 1:00 pm local time (1300 GMT) and affected large parts of the country.
Marietou Seye, a spokeswoman for Senegal’s national power company, Senelec, explained that the disruption was triggered by an incident in Dakar’s Hann neighborhood, leading to a countrywide outage due to the interconnected nature of the electricity grid.
According to Senelec’s distribution director, Oumar Diallo, the issue stemmed from a “very violent short circuit” that caused a major explosion at the Hann power station. As a result, power plants across the country disconnected from the grid as a precautionary measure.
While electricity was restored in parts of Dakar and several other cities later in the evening, the outage disrupted daily life for many Senegalese residents.
Senegal’s power sector has seen significant improvements over the past decade, with reduced outages following heavy investment in energy infrastructure during the tenure of former President Macky Sall. This incident, however, marks one of the most severe disruptions in recent years.