Speaking live on television during yesterday’s Fourth Ordinary Cabinet Meeting of 2026, held in the city of Zliten, Tripoli based Libyan Prime Minister, Abdel Hamid Aldabaiba said in an unprecedented outburst of anger that the persons in charge of the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) and the head of the Food and Drug Control Centre must both face serious charges.
From producing 10,000 megawatts to facing blackouts again?
"The Food and Drug Control Centre is a failure—just like the electricity sector; they are run by the same person. The electricity sector was running smoothly until this director arrived and took us back to square one. The management of the electricity sector is incompetent and disastrous; they must face serious charges. How did we go from producing 10,000 megawatts to facing blackouts again?"
Aldabaiba was speaking on the back of the return of serious power cuts and load shedding since June which culminated in a sudden and total power blackout yesterday from Misrata all the way to the Egyptian border. This was due to the sudden loss of 1,350 MW. Areas were experiencing 5 to 7 hours of power cuts - some reportedly even longer.
As a result of the total blackout, the Man-Made River (MMR) reported a total power outage across the entire Eastern Region. Separately, the same MMR water field had also experienced a separate power cut to 92 of its wells on 14 July.
State spends astronomical sums to maintain electricity production
Continuing during the Cabinet meeting, Aldabaiba said "We have a disaster on our hands regarding electricity, and I am going to take real measures—I won't tolerate this anymore. The state spends astronomical sums to maintain (electricity) production, yet we find ourselves back at square one. Everyone involved must be put on trial, and an investigative committee must be formed so we can understand how the electricity situation reached this point."
Calling for replace of management of Food & Drug Control Centre
"We must tell the incompetent exactly that—they are incompetent. Look at the failure of the Food and Drug Control Centre, which allowed toxins and filth to enter our country. I am calling on the oversight authority to replace the management of the Food and Drug Control Centre, which falls under its jurisdiction."
"You (his ministers) all need to speak up. When the power goes out somewhere, we need to know why, who cut it, and the real reasons behind it. We worked ourselves to the bone to achieve stability in the electricity supply; we boasted to Libyans that outages were a thing of the past—telling them to sell their generators and making light of the issue—only for some incompetent person to come along and drag us back to square one! This is unacceptable."
GECOL promise of addition power ‘soon’
It will be recalled that, ironically, the Tripoli based GECOL had promised on 15 July that it will soon be bringing generation units online to contribute to the national grid following their maintenance and the successful completion of their operational trials.
The company had explained that the new units will add more than 600 megawatts to the network, distributed over three stations.
It will also be recalled that the Tripoli government has taken the decision to favour supplying power to domestic users over industrial consumers. This policy has affected some industries, including the cement production sector. This has been reflected in the increased price of cement.
On 15 July, the Libyan Industry Union called for a meeting to discuss the negative effect of the decreased amount of electricity it is being allowed to use - due to power shortages.