Somelec announced on 31 October that field teams would remove illegal connections and correct unsafe hookups on Nouakchott’s poles and distribution network. The utility attributed repeated pole fires to poor-quality cables, improvised connections and work by people outside its authorised teams.
The intervention adds a safety operation to the capital’s continuing electricity problems. Somelec says the connections can cause short circuits when demand rises, overloading poles and transformers. It gave no completion timetable or estimate of how many customers would be affected by disconnections or regularisation.