Hundreds close Kirkuk-Yaychi road to protest power outages

KIRKUK, Iraq — Hundreds of residents of the Yaychi district south of Kirkuk blocked the Kirkuk-Yaychi highway on Monday to protest prolonged electricity cuts, disrupting traffic on the route. Demonstrator Fadhil Ahmed al-Yaychili said the outages have directly affected daily life in the district, particularly among elderly people, children and patients. Al-Yaychili said residents had raised their grievances with the relevant authorities but received no concrete response, prompting them to close the road to make their voices heard. The protesters demanded an urgent and lasting solution to the electricity crisis, rejecting what they described as repeated temporary promises. Security forces were deployed to the area to monitor the situation and manage traffic flow, according to the report. Officials said they were working to address the residents' demands to resolve the electricity crisis and improve services in Yaychi. No further details on the length of the planned road closure were immediately available.