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Bin Mubarak Implements Emergency Measures to Address Aden’s Power Crisis

A general view of Aden. Reuters
A general view of Aden. Reuters
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Bin Mubarak Implements Emergency Measures to Address Aden’s Power Crisis

A general view of Aden. Reuters
A general view of Aden. Reuters

Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak has approved emergency measures to address the worsening power crisis in Aden, the country’s temporary capital, after fuel shortages forced all power stations to shut down, plunging the city into darkness.

The blackout has raised concerns about disruptions to water supplies and hospital operations.

Aden has long struggled with chronic electricity shortages due to fuel scarcity, limited government resources, and the high cost of diesel and fuel oil needed to keep power plants running.

The power outage occurred late Wednesday into Thursday after the PetroMasila Power Plant, also known as the “President’s Plant,” ceased operations due to a lack of crude oil, which was previously supplied from Hadramout and Marib.

According to state media, Bin Mubarak held urgent discussions with the Governor of the Central Bank, and the Ministers of Finance, Electricity, and Energy to oversee the increase in crude oil supply from the Safer oil fields in Marib to Aden’s power plants, starting Thursday.

He stressed the importance of ensuring funds allocated for electricity are used efficiently, avoiding waste and corruption, and strengthening oversight over fuel distribution for power generation.

The prime minister warned of the economic war waged by the Houthi militias, accusing them of systematically targeting Yemen’s resources by attacking oil facilities and halting crude exports.

Since October 2022, the Houthis have deprived the government of its primary revenue source by attacking oil export terminals in Hadramout and Shabwa, leading to a complete halt in production.

Bin Mubarak called on all state institutions and officials to work towards improving public services and addressing citizens’ needs, emphasizing their national, religious, and moral responsibility.

He reaffirmed his commitment to institutional reforms and anti-corruption efforts, with support from the Presidential Leadership Council and the Saudi- and UAE-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy.

The prolonged power outage has fueled public frustration, with hundreds of Aden residents taking to the streets, burning tires in protest, and demanding urgent and lasting solutions before the summer heat.

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Families of Disappeared in Syria Want the Search to Continue on Conflict’s 14th Anniversary

Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)
Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)
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Families of Disappeared in Syria Want the Search to Continue on Conflict’s 14th Anniversary

Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)
Family members hold pictures of their relatives who disappeared in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war, during a protest calling on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them, in the city of Daraa, Syria, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP)

Family members of Syrians who disappeared in the 14-year civil war on Sunday gathered in the city of Daraa and called on the interim government to not give up on efforts to find them.

The United Nations in 2021 estimated that over 130,000 Syrians were taken away and disappeared, many of them detained by Bashar al-Assad's network of intelligence agencies, as well as by opposition fighters and the extremist ISIS group. Advocacy group The Syrian Campaign says some 112,000 are still missing to this day.

When opposition led by group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew President Bashar Assad in April, they stormed prisons and released detainees from the ousted government's dungeons.

Families of the missing quickly rushed to the prisons seeking their loved ones. While there were some reunions, rescue services also discovered mass graves around the country and used whatever remains they could retrieve to identify the dead.

Wafa Mustafa held a placard of her father, Ali, who was detained by the Assad government's security forces in 2013. She fled a week later to Germany, fearing she would also be detained, and hasn't heard from him since.

Like many other Syrians who fled the conflict or went into exile for their activism, she often held protests and rallied in European cities. Now, she has returned twice since Assad's ouster, trying to figure out her father's whereabouts.

“I’m trying, feeling both hope and despair, to find any answer on the fate of my father,” she told The Associated Press. “I searched inside the prisons, the morgues, the hospitals, and through the bodies of the martyrs, but I still couldn’t find anything.”

A United Nations-backed commission on Friday urged the government led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to preserve evidence and anything they can document from prisons in the ongoing search for the disappeared and to pursue perpetrators.

Some foreign nationals are missing in Syria as well, notably American journalist Austin Tice, whose mother visited Syria in January and met with al-Sharaa. Tice has not been heard from other than a video released weeks after his disappearance in 2012 that showed him blindfolded and held by armed men.

Syria’s conflict started as one of the popular uprisings of the so-called 2011 Arab Spring, before Assad crushed the largely peaceful protests and a civil war erupted. Half a million people have been killed and more than 5 million left the country as refugees.