Authorities in Cuba continue working to restart the power grid after a new blackout, the second in less than a week, but say fuel shortages caused by the U.S. oil embargo are slowing down the process.

The state electricity company, Unión Eléctrica, said in a post on platform X that "the restoration of power is proceeding gradually as conditions allow."

This is the fourth nationwide blackout in less than six months and the ninth since the end of 2024 on the island of 9.6 million inhabitants, according to AFP.

The power grid disconnected on Friday afternoon due to a fault, just two days after power was restored following a nationwide outage on Monday.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the situation on Saturday as "very tough due to the U.S. oil embargo that has been in place since last January."

According to the electricity company, the fuel shortage not only makes the grid more prone to failures but also slows down restoration because it prevents the use of backup generators that run on imported diesel.

Since January, Washington has only allowed one Russian oil tanker carrying 100,000 tons of oil to arrive.

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