TRIPOLI: More than 100 rockets fired in clashes between rival government-paid militia have knocked out a power plant in southern Libya, heightening the risk of summer blackouts, the electricity minister said yesterday. “This is the chaos Libya lives in,” the visibly-annoyed minister, Ali Mohammed Muhairiq, told a televised news conference. “The plant was hit by dozens of rockets, by 120 rockets. I don’t know whether we will be able to repair it before summer and Ramadan.”
The fasting month of Ramadan begins at the end of June this year. Libya, an Opec oil producer, suffers frequent blackouts in summer due to heavy use of air-conditioners.
Muhairiq said the power station in Sarir had been put out of action by days of fighting between militias on the payroll of the defence and interior ministries. He said parliament had approved a loan for the repairs, since the government had no budget to meet the bill of up to 300m Libyan dinars, but gave no details.reuters
