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Africa Live: Anger as Sierra Leone cities remain in the dark for weeks - BBC News Africa Live: Anger as Sierra Leone cities remain in the dark for weeks - BBC News
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South Africa has now gone for 21 consecutive days without power cuts, the first time such a streak has been achieved in nearly two years.
"The last time Eskom achieved a similar milestone was in June 2022, with 20 consecutive days without load shedding," state-owned power company Eskom said in a statement on Wednesday. Burkina Faso has expelled three French diplomats for engaging in "subversive activities", the Burkinabe foreign affairs ministry said in a notice to France quoted by the AFP news agency and French broadcaster RFI.
The statement added that Eskom would continue to suspend the power cuts, known locally as loads hedding, "until further notice". The notice dated 16 April did not reveal the nature of the activities.
It attributed the stabilisation of power supply to reduced demand for electricity, adequate emergency power reserves and an improvement in its electricity generation capacity. The diplomats, who include two political advisers at the French embassy in Ouagadougou, have been asked "to leave the territory of Burkina Faso within the next 48 hours”, the notice added.
But some South Africans have voiced scepticism on social media, speculating that the reduced power cuts could be a scheme by the ruling government to appease voters, ahead of next month's crucial general election. Relations between Burkina Faso and its former colonial power France have soured since Capt Ibrahim Traoré seized power in a coup in September 2022.
South Africa reached the height of its energy crisis last year, with several homes and businesses going without power for up to 16 hours a day. The junta leader has pivoted Burkina Faso towards Russia, ending its close ties with former colonial power France.
Read more from South Africa: Under his rule, several French diplomats have been expelled and France's military base in the country shut down.
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