Jul 29, 2018

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday sacked his minister of electricity, his office said, following weeks of protests against corruption and chronic power outages.

A statement from Abadi's office said the premier sacked Qassem al-Fahdawi -- whose departure

was demanded by protesters -- "because of the deterioration in the electricity sector".

Iraq has been gripped by three weeks of protests during which demonstrators have railed against power shortages, unemployment, a lack of clean water and state mismanagement.

The protests first erupted in the oil-rich but neglected southern province of Basra, home to Iraq's only sea port, before spreading to neighbouring regions and north to Baghdad.