Power restored across Malawi after mystery nationwide blackout — as Escom continues probe into cause

The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has confirmed that power has been restored to most parts of the country following the mysterious nationwide system shutdown that plunged Malawi into darkness at 7:11am on Sunday.

The utility revealed that restoration efforts kicked into gear almost immediately after the outage struck, with supply gradually returning region by region throughout the morning — first to parts of the Southern Region by 8:44am, followed by the Central Region at 9:50am, before power finally returned to the Northern Region by 10:34am.

Escom confirmed that major load centres across the country have now been successfully reconnected to the national grid, bringing relief to homes, businesses and institutions after hours of disruption.

However, questions still remain over exactly what triggered the sudden blackout in the first place, with the utility confirming that investigations into the root cause of the shutdown are continuing behind the scenes.

Escom Public Relations Officer Pilirani Phiri told Capital FM that the public will be kept in the loop, promising a full update once investigators have conclusively established what caused the system-wide failure.

The swift restoration will come as a relief to many Malawians, following widespread frustration and confusion earlier in the day as the outage left customers across the country in the dark with no immediate explanation.

Escom has faced mounting scrutiny in recent years over recurring power disruptions, and today's incident is likely to renew calls for greater transparency and accountability from the utility over the stability of the national grid.

For now, Malawians will be watching closely for Escom's follow-up statement, as the search continues to determine exactly what went wrong behind the scenes on Sunday morning.