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Electricity supplies have been restored to Sierra Leone following weeks of power cuts, after it paid off part of the $48m (\u00a338m) bill it owed to a Turkish company.<\/p>\n
The $18m payment came as the country’s energy minister resigned, saying he took full responsibility for the crisis.<\/p>\n
Most electricity supplies to the capital, Freetown, come from a Turkish ship floating off the country\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n
Last week, Karpowership said it had severely cut supplies to the city – from 60 megawatts to 6 megawatts – because of the unpaid bills, but the disruption has been going on for far longer.<\/p>\n
Residents of the country’s main cities have been going for days on end without any power and hospitals have also been affected.<\/p>\n
The Reuters news agency quotes a doctor as saying that at least one infant has died because of a lack of power, while medics have been using mobile phones to provide light as they carry out procedures.<\/p>\n
Before supplies were restored, Fatmata Gassim, a second-year engineering student in Freetown, told the BBC’s What in the World podcast<\/a> of her frustration at the lack of power.<\/p>\n “How do you iron your clothes, how do you make your food, how do you go to sleep? We pay our electricity bills so I don\u2019t see why we should be forced to live like this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Following the resignation of Kanja Sesay, the office of President Julius Maada Bio said the energy ministry would now fall under the direct supervision of the president.<\/p>\n Karpowership previously cut supplies to Sierra Leone in September over unpaid bills.<\/p>\n It is one of the world’s biggest floating power plant operators, with several African states relying on it for electricity.<\/p>\n