ADEN, Yemen, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a key partner of the Saudi-led Arab coalition, continued on Sunday to provide fuel for electricity stations to reduce power outages in the southern port city of Aden.
Power outages rapidly increased during recent days in Aden, which has been hit by a scorching heat amid a lack of fuel for the power stations, an official of Aden's local government confirmed to Xinhua.
The UAE rushed to provide Aden's power stations with a fuel tanker in an attempt to reduce the suffering of Yemeni citizens living in the strategic port city where the temperature reaches about 40 degrees Celsius.
"A new fuel tanker arrived in Aden carrying a shipment estimated at 58,972 metric tons of diesel to generate the electricity stations in the city," said the official anonymously.
The fuel tanker that came from the Fujairah port in the UAE arrived at Aden's oil port and started unloading its shipment to the tanks belonging to the Refinery Company in the city, he said.
Local electricity workers said that the UAE's support came as an emergency solution for Aden's power stations that were about to completely stop operating because of running out of fuel.
In June, the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation signed an agreement with the Electricity and Energy Ministry of Yemen to set up a new power plant in Aden, according to UAE media outlets.
The project, which cost 100 U.S. million dollars, is part of the UAE's continued efforts to enhance the power grid in Aden. Around 2.5 million Yemeni citizens were expected to benefit from the plan.
Stations of the old electricity corporation in neighboring Lahj province were partially collapsed due to a lack of maintenance, causing an increase of the power outages that reached more than 18 hours a day earlier this summer.
Seven citizens died as a result of the heatwave that swept the southern province of Lahj in addition to the repeated power outages in June.
The impoverished Arab country has been locked in a civil war since the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels overran much of the country militarily and seized all northern provinces, including capital Sanaa, in 2014.
