Fuel crisis: hundreds of students unable to go to school due to the strike of transporters sanctioned by a government unable to provide them with fuel

Several hundred students who attend boarding schools were unable to go to their schools for the start of the school year scheduled for September 16. The reason is that transporters in Bujumbura in the commercial city, Rumonge (southwest) and Muyinga (northeast) in particular are on strike. This after the internal affairs minister’s note banning them from setting the price of the ticket beyond the official rates. Which triggers the transporters’ pushing back of the measure over lack of fuel, they say.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

This Sunday, several hundred students heading to the central, central-eastern, northern and northeastern, southeastern and southwestern provinces and eastern Burundi were unable to get a bus to take them there.

“We have been here since 6am. All the buses are parked. We have to go home but unfortunately, we are not reassured to have a bus even this Monday”, testified young hungry students. They had backpacks filled with personal belongings and hand luggage. SOS Médias Burundi met these students around 4:30pm.

A few people who were at the main parking lot called Cotebu in the north of the economic capital Bujumbura where the parking lot for these buses and public transport agencies is located speak of “desolation”.

In the morning, administrative and police authorities went to this main parking lot in the north of Bujumbura for ” an assessment”. But no solution has been found.

Reason for the strike

The strike follows a note from the Minister for internal affairs and security, Martin Niteretse. On Friday, September 13, Mr. Niteretse issued a circular ordering representatives of the administration and the police to ensure that “transporters apply official rates”.

According to the miniser’s order several complaints from passengers forced to pay excessive prices have reached the government recently.

A student stands up to answer a question from a teacher in a class in Burundi, students are very affected by the lack of buses linked to the fuel shortage (SOS Médias Burundi)

As soon as Martin Niteretse’s note was sent to his lieutenants, the hunt for transporters who set prices above official rates began. On all the roads leading to the different provinces of Burundi from Bujumbura, road checks had been reinforced this weekend. According to police sources, multiple drivers were fined up to 500,000 Burundian francs and sentenced to a week of detention.

“Today, the government can no longer provide us with fuel. When we find it on the black market, we pay up to 45,000 francs per liter. And we are asked to respect the official prices. It’s absurd,” say drivers. The official price of a liter of gasoline is 4,000, while diesel costs 3,925 Burundian francs.

In addition to the driver’s detention, vehicles must also be seized, and in certain situations, drivers must appear before a judge in flagrante delicto cases. They can be accused of “disrupting the economy or undermining the proper functioning of the national economy.”

“Several owners of vehicles that provide public transport have preferred to keep them at home to be safe from these sanctions”.

In recent months, many individuals and drivers of state service vehicles including the army and the police, not to mention those of trucks reserved for transporting goods, have launched into public transport to “help desperate passengers”.

In the majority of cases, passengers are crammed into hoods ironically called “VIP seats”. A civil service employee who does this kind of business told SOS Médias Burundi that he charges between 2,000 and 3,000 francs, the people he picks up in downtown Bujumbura, depending on whether they have found a place in the hood or not. Between the central parking lot of the commercial city and his neighborhood, there is, approximately 5 kilometers, a distance officially billed at 600 Burundian francs, by bus impossible to find today.

“I compare the minister’s measure to someone who beats you up but at the same time prevents you from crying,” he analyzed when he read the circular from Minister Niteretse who also calls on passengers to “refuse to pay excessive prices” and to “denounce speculative carriers”.

Passengers who spoke to SOS Médias Burundi are asking the Burundian authorities to “find fuel” instead of “looking for scapegoats”.

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Passengers in a parking lot where there is only one bus in service in the center of Bubanza, western Burundi, September 15, 2024 (SOS Media Burundi)