Cubans were in despair Wednesday after their cash-strapped communist country plunged into its fifth nationwide power blackout in a year.

Axar.az informs, ciitng France 24, "A total disconnection of the SEN electricity system has occurred, which may be associated with an unexpected shutdown" of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, the energy ministry said on its X account.

It added that it was investigating the outage, which happened at around 17:15 (13:15GMT).

Cuba is already in the throes of its worst economic crisis in three decades.

In recent years it has been plagued by hours-long daily blackouts, recurring electricity system breakdowns and an acute shortage of fuel to keep producing power.

The recent installation of 30 solar parks, with Chinese funding and expertise, has not yet alleviated the situation.