Burundi: the fuel crisis far from over

After months on a fuel drip, the situation is becoming almost chaotic in Burundi, very hard to see a service station serving gasoline. All the provinces of the small East African nation have no gasoline. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Road traffic on the urban road of Bujumbura (commercial city) illustrates the situation. No traffic jams as usual, our reporter noted. He joined the townspeople as they drove through the streets of Bujumbura under the blazing sun, to see if such and such a station was serving petrol.

At some distribution points, no vehicles, while elsewhere vehicles are queuing, but all the pumps are empty. Most vehicles in line are transport mini-buses and taxis.

This Monday evening, only one station had a little gasoline in the center of the economic capital. It is located on Boulevard du 28 Novembre. An endless line of vehicles waiting to be served could be observed.

“I should be with my children, including a little girl who should be breastfed, not to mention the homework for the other two children. Imagine if I sacrifice all that and I don’t get served,” laments a young mother headed by around ten vehicles around 8 p.m.

On different car parks, taxis are very rare.

“The other drivers went to spend days at the station. That’s how we work these days,” laments a taxi driver.

And a passer-by slipped: “The taxi drivers are among those who sell fuel in secret for up to 10,000 Burundian francs per litre. They empty their tank and return to the station.”

A liter of gasoline costs 3250 Burundian francs officially.

In all the provinces of the small East African nation, gasoline cannot be found, our reporters noticed on Tuesday.

This deficiency is linked to an uncontrolled rise in the price of the transport ticket, causing in turn a general increase in all products, especially basic necessities.

Recently, the ministry in charge of energy, under which the management of petroleum products, had promised to “definitively resolve the fuel crisis”. The Burundian authorities have not yet commented on this new gasoline shortage.