A cat plunges Sudanese capital into darkness

BBC Monitoring Newsfile

By Albayan, an Emirati daily newspaper

KHARTOUM, Nov. 13, 2003 — A cat was the cause of the power outage in Sudan’s electricity system which left Khartoum and several states [of the country] in total darkness for five hours during the night of the day before yesterday [the night of 11-12 November].

The cat sneaked into one of the high-voltage pylons in the area of Kilo 10, in southern Khartoum, and caused a short-circuit in the cables, provoking a fire and the main power plant to fail.

The minister of electricity, Ali Tamim Fartak, said efforts were being made to restore the power line in all towns.

[The Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafah web site had reported on 12 November that a technical fault at a power station in the area of Soba, near Khartoum, had left the whole of Sudan in darkness. It cited the electricity minister as saying that the whole national electricity grid was down as a result.

The Egyptian news agency MENA reported that a “huge fire” late on 11 November in Khartoum’s main power plant had left the city in complete darkness and with almost no tap water.]