Egyptians urged to show patience over power cuts

Two days after a major power cut hit Cairo and other provinces during the morning rush hour, Egyptian president Saturday urged people to be patient on recurrent power outages and promised to address the problem.

President Abdel-Fattah al- Sisi made the appeal in a televised public address, Xinhua reported.

Due to a growing power demand and the fuel shortage to run generating power plants, Egypt has been hit by frequent rolling power cuts this summer, of which Thursday's hours-long blackout turned out to be the most extensive in years.

The Electricity Ministry said the power outages was caused due to technical problems.

President Sisi said the government has been working with investors as part of the efforts to make funds available for building new power stations to meet the rising demand.

He also urged the public to be patient and join in the efforts of his administration to face and overcome challenges.

As the former military leader who was elected as president in early June, Sisi has been facing a wide public anger as he partially lifted the energy subsidies and failed to solve the problem of power shortage.

The government has promised to end the blackouts within four months.