Bujumbura: Burundian authorities are unable to provide fuel to motorists but seize buses

Burundi’s traffic police say they have seized at least 70 public transport buses out of 200 targeted by sanctions against motorists who resell fuel instead of transporting passengers. No bus exceeds 40 liters of fuel for those who can find it.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

It was police colonel Eugène Bizindavyi, police commander in charge of road safety, who confirmed the seizure to the local press on Tuesday.

According to Colonel Bizindavyi, the police are targeting at least 200 vehicles. But it has already got its hands on some 70 buses which are held at the headquarters of the road traffic police in the commercial city Bujumbura.

Reproaches

Police say they followed the buses in question and noted their registration numbers, without giving many details, adding the suspected buses were fueled at different times but never moved the passengers.

“Instead, this fuel was resold on the black market,” laments the Burundian police commander in charge of road safety.

Police Colonel Eugène Bizindavyi does not specify the sanctions that the owners of these “sabotager” buses face.

https://www.sosmediasburundi.org/2024/06/21/bujumbura-crise-de-carburant-les-vehicules-de-letat-sinvitent-dans-le-transport-en-commun/

According to transporters who spoke to SOS Médias Burundi, no bus can exceed 40 liters of fuel, it is still necessary to find some.

The fuel crisis which has lasted almost 42 months and which has reached its peak in recent months, paralyzes all the life of the small nation of landlocked East Africa and classified as the poorest country in the world, which refuses to accept its leader Évariste Ndayishimiye who speaks of “internal sabotage” with a view to “raising the population against the institutions”.

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An overview of the town of Kamanyola in the DRC, one of the supply points for Burundian fuel traffickers (©️SOS Médias Burundi)