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FUEL CRISIS

Internet goes down in west Beirut amid diesel shortages

Internet goes down in west Beirut amid diesel shortages

Ogero Chairman Imad Kreidieh. (Credit: NNA)

BEIRUT —Internet service in large swathes of Beirut went offline late Saturday evening amid diesel shortages.

Here's what we know:

    • Imad Kreidieh, chairman of state telecommunications provider Ogero, tweeted late Saturday evening, "A notification, not a warning.. In the early hours of the morning, communication in Beirut's third district will be cut off, and the Mazraa Central will stop working as our last liter of diesel runs out."

    • The third district encompasses the neighborhoods of west Beirut, including Hamra and the greater Ras Beirut area, as well as Dar al-Mreisseh, Mazraa, Moseitbeh, Minet al-Hosn and Zoqaq al-Blat.

    • Kreidieh added, "O lady of the world [a reference to a poem about Beirut by the famous Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani], don't blame us for what the abhorrent bureaucracy has done to us. Sorry to Beirut and every city and village in Lebanon."

    • In response to a customer inquiring on Twitter if the Mazraa was offline, Ogero's official Twitter account replied, "Unfortunately, yes, the central is out of diesel."

    • Earlier on Saturday, residents of Baysour, a town in the Aley area, called on authorities to take action to end an extended telecoms outage after the Telecommunications Ministry “failed to secure fuel” to operate a telecoms station servicing the area, the NNA reported. Localized telecoms outages have become increasingly common.

    • Lebanon's telecoms companies are increasingly strapped for cash, as rates have not kept up with rising fuel and operation costs, and telecoms officials complain of being plagued by thieves who take network cables to sell as scrap metal.


BEIRUT —Internet service in large swathes of Beirut went offline late Saturday evening amid diesel shortages.Here's what we know:    • Imad Kreidieh, chairman of state telecommunications provider Ogero, tweeted late Saturday evening, "A notification, not a warning.. In the early hours of the morning, communication in Beirut's third district will be cut off, and the Mazraa Central...