Attacks on power lines in Yemen caused a widespread blackout that has left several provinces and the country's capital without electricity for two days, AP quoted a government statement as saying Tuesday. Yemen experiences daily electricity outages throughout the summer. The most recent outage, which has plunged the capital, Sanaa, and its second largest city, Taiz, into darkness for 48 hours, surpasses the more frequent cuts in electricity that tend to last a few hours at a time. A statement by the electricity ministry blamed the latest blackout on attacks on power lines in the eastern Marib province. Provinces in the country's south were also affected by the recent cuts, and thousands of people took to the streets in the city of Aden to protest. The United Nations envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, wrote in a report to the U.N. Security Council Tuesday that Yemen's electricity problem is causing "misery and anger throughout the country." "Families are being plunged into darkness and unbearable heat," Benomar wrote of the temperatures that often soar to 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit).
