Baghdad residents protest prolonged power cuts at Algeria Bridge

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Residents of the Algeria Bridge area in Baghdad protested on Saturday over prolonged electricity outages as summer temperatures climbed. Locals said the disruptions have disrupted daily life, particularly for children and the elderly, as air-conditioning demand rises with the heat. Protesters alleged that maintenance crews had asked households to pay around 3 million Iraqi dinars to have local transformer stations brought back online. They accused authorities of failing to address the issue and said repeated complaints had not produced a lasting improvement in the grid. Residents said the cuts, layered on top of peak summer cooling needs, have created severe hardship in the neighborhood. They called on officials to resolve the outages and end what they described as unofficial payments to restore power. No statement from the relevant authorities was immediately available.