Zambia and Zimbabwe Experience Nationwide Power Outage

A 30-minute nationwide power outage in Zambia over the weekend was attributed to a technical fault in the interconnected power networks with Zimbabwe, as confirmed by Peter Mumba, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy. During the outage, miners at two sites were trapped underground, but all were safely rescued using alternative power sources. ZESCO, Zambia's state utility, and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) both reported similar disturbances, with ZESA apologizing for the inconvenience and indicating that engineers were working to restore power. The outage occurred against a backdrop of ongoing power rationing due to severe drought conditions affecting hydropower generation, particularly at the Kariba Dam. Although power was restored shortly after the incident, ZESCO's acting managing director stated that investigations into the cause of the disturbance are ongoing, with prior power shortages already impacting both countries. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties in hospitals or other critical facilities during the outage.