HAVANA: Authorities said Saturday that Cuba was struggling to restore its electrical grid after a second island-wide blackout in under a week, with efforts complicated by a fuel scarcity stemming from a U.S. blockade.

The blackouts come amid a deepening economic crisis that has strained Cuba's energy infrastructure for years.

Cuba is enduring its worst economic crisis in decades, worsened by a fuel blockade that U.S. President Donald Trump imposed in January to pressure the communist leadership.

As of Saturday evening, roughly 12 percent of households in Havana — a city of 1.7 million — had electricity, compared to seven percent at noon, the state-run UNE utility reported.

“Restoration is proceeding gradually, as conditions allow,” it said on X.

It was the fourth nationwide blackout in less than six months and the ninth since late 2024 for the island nation which has a population of 9.6 million.

The grid failed Friday afternoon, two days after authorities reconnected the system following a nationwide outage on Monday.

Cuban residents vented their frustration at the power situation.

“What can I do? I can’t do anything, just adapt to continue living in this country unfortunately, that’s it, I can’t do anything else,” Eneyda Gomez, a 71-year-old retiree, told AFP.

“We’re already living under an almost unbearable amount of stress...the population can’t take any more,” said Pedro Martinez, 63, who added he sees no “solutions in the medium or short term.”

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a social media post on Saturday the situation was “very complex due to the genocidal oil blockade” imposed by Washington.

Washington authorized in January the arrival of only one Russian tanker — carrying 100,000 tons of crude — which came in March. Those reserves have since been exhausted.

Cuba’s electrical grid suffers from frequent total or partial blackouts due to aging infrastructure and fuel shortages.

The utility company said the fuel shortage also complicates restoration work, as it prevents the use of backup generators powered by imported diesel.

This latest outage marks the fourth nationwide blackout in less than six months and the ninth since late 2024, reflecting a deepening energy crisis. Residents express mounting frustration and despair, as officials blame the U.S. blockade for hindering recovery efforts. The situation underscores the challenges facing Cuba's aging infrastructure amid economic turmoil.