Cuba's National Electric Company announced Tuesday that the power grid went offline for the third time in less than ten days, causing a new nationwide blackout.

The National Electric Company said the national grid completely went out of service around 11:05 am (15:05 GMT), according to Agence France-Presse.

This is the third total blackout in the Caribbean island since the beginning of July, and the fifth since the start of 2026.

Authorities did not immediately disclose the cause.

Cuba is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, exacerbated by the oil blockade imposed by US President Donald Trump in January.

Cubans have been accustomed to power outages for years due to aging power plants, most of which are from the Soviet era and in poor condition.

But the frequency of outages has accelerated since the start of the oil blockade, with authorities attributing it to a lack of fuel needed to operate generators that support the crumbling national grid.

Since January, Washington has only allowed one oil tanker, from Russia, to dock in Cuba.

The blockade, along with a barrage of sanctions on the Cuban state and foreign companies dealing with it, has pushed the country to the brink of collapse.

The country is also experiencing shortages of food, drinking water, and medicine, prompting the United Nations to warn of a humanitarian emergency.

Last week, Cuba experienced two power outages. In both cases, it took more than 24 hours to restore electricity to the island of 9.6 million people.

Relations between Washington and Havana have been tense since the beginning of the year, especially after US forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and took him and his wife to the United States to face federal charges.

Maduro had long been an ally of Havana, and after his ouster, Cuba was deprived of Venezuelan oil due to the US blockade.

Trump considers Cuba, located 150 kilometers off the coast of Florida, a major threat to US national security and has repeatedly hinted at the possibility of Washington imposing control over the island.