⁍ For years Lebanon has been blighted by power cuts.

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⁍ For many Lebanese, the state’s inability to deliver reliable electricity has become a metaphor for their country’s wider failings.

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⁍ The failure to fix the electricity sector offers a glimpse into how Lebanon got into its worst crisis since the 15-year civil war that ended in 1990.

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– Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his resignation Monday in the wake of a massive explosion at a port last week that killed at least 158 people and left hundreds of thousands without power, the AP reports. “I have decided to step down as prime minister with immediate effect,” said Diab, who became Lebanon’s third prime minister in three years when his Western-backed coalition came to power last year. The resignations came a day after Lebanon’s president asked for a new government to be formed in the wake of the deadly blast at the port city of Sidon. The blast is believed to have been caused by an unsafe level of ammonium nitrate in the port city, which is located in a Christian area. The Christian Free Patriotic Movement party, which controls a majority of the seats in Lebanon’s parliament, wants to build a power station in the area. Other political parties and Lebanon’s international donors have raised concerns about the idea. Reuters reports that documents seen by the news agency reveal how the Free Patriotic Movement refused to give ground even as questions grew around the Selaata project’s viability and it became clear donors would not finance it as part of immediate steps to overhaul the power sector. The explosion has piled more misery onto the people, wrecking the commercial heart of Beirut and leaving around 250,000 people without homes. Since last October, thousands of Lebanese have taken to the streets to protest against the country’s ruling class, with Lebanon’s broken power network top of their grievances. Officials have blamed the explosion on ammonium nitrate stored unsafely at the port.