Kirundo-Muyinga : fuel theft from vehicles rages

As the fuel shortage has reached its peak, criminals are organizing themselves to empty vehicle tanks at night.This situation is reported in Muyinga and Kirundo (north-eastern Burundi). Kirundo where mob justice is reported. There bandits who are caught are quickly released by the police. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The fuel stealing occurs at night, according to residents of Muyinga and Kirundo who spoke to SOS Médias Burundi.

“The bandits target vehicle owners who have had fuel. I don’t know how they find out. They enter the plot and empty the vehicle’s tank and leave,” they explain.

One of the victims said he was woken up by the smell of fuel late at night.

“I smelled gasoline around 2 a.m. When I came out, I just noticed a few drops on the floor and went back to bed. It was in the morning that I realized that there was no more fuel in my vehicle. It had been emptied,” complains this Kirundo official.

Suspicions of complicity

According to residents in both provinces, the bandits collaborated with police officers in the affair.

“We do not understand how the bandits manage to identify who has had the fuel. But we suspect the police officers who provide security at the gas stations are the ones who provide the information to the bandits. They are the ones who identify and note those who are served, once there is fuel,” they accuse.

Watchmen are also singled out

“Watchmen were fired for having been involved in the theft of fuel. They are tempted by the price of fuel on the black market where a 20l can costs up to 250,000 Burundian francs. The normal price is 80 thousand at the pump “, say our sources in Muyinga.

Motorists indicate that for greater precaution, “we prefer to leave our vehicles in secure public places such as the hospital or in front of provincial offices. There, we are more reassured than watching over our vehicles ourselves.”

In Kirundo, bandits who were arrested were immediately released, regret residents, for whom this reinforces suspicions of complicity.

“Since then, we have decided to resort to mob justice. When we catch a bandit in the night, we punish him seriously,” admit residents of the provincial capital.

Sources who requested anonymity indicate that the punishment of bandits goes as far as killing them.

“And the body is buried on the sly,” they say.

Anonymous sources within the police reveal that the delinquents are released ”allegedly because no one brings them food”, but these sources say they are surprised that the thieves are only locked up ”for the duration of a dew”.

Furthermore, judicial police officers are often under pressure from certain administration executives ”to turn a blind eye to certain files”, add the same sources, who do not however specify whether they have files of fuel thieves.