Bujumbura plunges back into fuel shortage : the black market booms

SOS Médias Burundi

Bujumbura, December 14, 2025 — For nearly a week, fuel sales have once again been severely disrupted in Bujumbura, the commercial capital of the small east African nation. Unlike previous episodes marked by long lines at gas stations, several distribution points are now completely dry. This deceptive silence reflects not a return to normal, but a near-total shortage.

According to several accounts gathered on the ground, fuel is simply unavailable at many of the city’s petrol stations. This new paralysis is part of a structural crisis that has been ongoing for nearly five years. Faced with recurring supply disruptions, many Bujumbura residents had turned to the Congolese city of Uvira, just across the border, to fill their vehicles’ tanks.

Other parallel networks also existed within the country, particularly in the Cibitoke region of northwestern Burundi. In some localities like Nyamitanga, fuel was sold informally, sometimes in jerrycans along the roadside, like any other commodity. These networks allowed those who couldn’t wait at petrol stations, or who were facing emergencies, to refuel at prices two to three times higher than the official rate.

But today, even these backup systems seem to have ground to a halt. “It appears that even the trucks carrying fuel from Tanzania are no longer crossing the border,” confided a petrol station attendant in downtown Bujumbura. This news is fueling concerns about the national fuel supply, as Burundi is almost entirely dependent on imports via the Tanzanian corridor.

Motorists say they feel disoriented and powerless. “Just two weeks ago, the queues didn’t bother us because we knew we’d eventually get served. Fuel was available,” testifies a driver encountered in Bujumbura.

Faced with this shortage, the black market has resurfaced with renewed vigor. Each fuel vendor now sets their own prices. A liter of gasoline or diesel is currently selling for more than five times the official price, a surge that is severely impacting households, transportation, and all economic activities.

A direct impact of the regional context

This situation is closely linked to the deteriorating security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The capture of the city of Uvira by M23 rebels on the night of December 9-10 abruptly severed one of the main informal supply routes used by Bujumbura residents. Located just a few dozen kilometers from Burundi’s commercial capital, Uvira had for years served as a fallback market in the face of recurring shortages.

For nearly three decades, the eastern DRC has been plagued by armed conflict involving numerous rebel groups. Reactivated in 2021, the M23 now controls several towns in North and South Kivu. This escalation has not only caused massive population displacements into Burundi but has also disrupted informal cross-border trade, on which a portion of the Burundian economy depends.

At the same time, persistent insecurity on some roads linking Burundi to Tanzania further complicates the transport of fuel. In this unstable regional context, no clear prospect of a way out of the crisis is emerging in the short term.

Meanwhile, Bujumbura is living with the constant threat of shortages, caught between speculation, resourcefulness, and growing anxiety, in a country where access to fuel has become a constant challenge over the past five years.