Sierra Leone power restored as Energy Minister Kanja Sesay quits

Residents of the country’s main cities have been going for days on end without any power and hospitals have also been affected.

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.

Before supplies were restored, Fatmata Gassim, a second-year engineering student in Freetown, told the BBC’s What in the World podcast of her frustration at the lack of power.

“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’t see why we should be forced to live like this,” she said.