Nationwide Power Outage Strikes Sri Lanka Amid Ongoing Economic Challenges**

Sri Lanka faces a national power cut initiated by a sub-station emergency, with energy officials attributing the incident to an animal-related mishap.**

Sri Lanka has been struck by a major nationwide power outage that has left numerous facilities, including hospitals, reliant on generators and alternative power sources. The blackout commenced around 11:30 AM local time (06:00 GMT) and efforts to restore electricity are currently underway but have not been fully resolved.

According to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the outage was triggered by an emergency situation at a sub-station. Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody mentioned that a monkey allegedly caused a malfunction by coming into "contact with our grid transformer, resulting in a system imbalance," as reported by the AFP news agency.

"We are making every effort to restore the island's power supply as swiftly as possible," the CEB stated. As technicians work to fix the issue, citizens across the nation of 22 million struggle with the implications, utilizing generators or inverters to maintain essential services. This incident echoes the widespread blackouts experienced during Sri Lanka's economic crisis in 2022, underlining ongoing challenges faced by the country.