{"id":11272,"date":"2019-01-09T09:10:12","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T09:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/?p=11272"},"modified":"2019-01-09T09:10:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T09:10:12","slug":"fuel-shortage-persists-in-bujumbura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/fuel-shortage-persists-in-bujumbura\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel shortage persists in Bujumbura"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the south to the north of the capital Bujumbura, few petrol stations were providing fuel and gasoil in the morning of 8 January. In the southern neighborhoods, Mogas station located in Kabondo quarter in Mukaza commune was providing fuel and gasoline after four days without working. Pump attendants met on the spot report that they ignore the cause of the shortage. \u201cOur fuel supplier gives us a small quantity of fuel compared to the previous one,\u201d says a pump attendant.<\/p>\n

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Vehicles lining up in queues for fuel<\/p><\/div>\n

Some stations located in the south of Bujumbura city such as Kanyosha Mogas station, Kinindo City Oil and Kibenga station all along the National Road RN3 were closed. There were no fuel and gasoline. At Interpetrol Station located in Kanyosha quarter, the pump attendants distributed fuel and gasoline as usual. The person who is responsible for the station says they receive the fuel yesterday around 7:00 p.m. \u201cThe problem of fuel shortage has been observed since 2015. We have one supplier throughout the country and he distributes the quantity of fuel as he wishes and not according to the customers\u2019 demand\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

In the north of the capital, some petrol stations were also closed including Kigobe City Oil, Kigobe Mogas, Kobil and Nyabagere oil stations. \u201cWe haven\u2019t had fuel and gasoline for few days, we ignore the main causes,\u201d says a pump attendant met at Kigobe City oil station<\/p>\n

Drivers of buses and taxis say they work at a loss because they spend a lot of time in the queue. Hence, taxi drivers are obliged to increase the transportation fees. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any other choice than increasing the ticket,\u201d says a taxi driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a technical problem\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gabriel Rufyiri, chairman of the corruption watchdog-OLUCOME says the fuel shortage is due to several factors. \u201cThere is a political factor. The government doesn\u2019t want to attend the dialogue sessions and find solutions to the current political crisis,\u201d he says. He also says the shortage is due to the lack of foreign currency. \u201cSuppliers don\u2019t get sufficient foreign currency to import enough quantity. Then, one supplier monopolizes the market and fails to provide sufficient fuel to all petrol stations\u201d, says Rufyiri adding that the lack of a strategic stock in the country worsens the situation.<\/p>\n

The chairman of the corruption watchdog also says the government wants to collect a lot of tax revenues in the sector. \u201cThe government always wants to collect more than it produces. So, the population becomes the first victims of the situation even if it is reported that the latter is related to a technical problem\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

When contacted, L\u00e9onidas Sindayigaya, Spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Mines says his institution is doing its best to handle the issue as the President has already declared.<\/p>\n

During the public conference held in Ngozi on 28 December 2018, President Pierre Nkurunziza said the fuel shortage is related to a technical problem. \u201cThe problem isn\u2019t new today and it will always happen and take a long time to be solved. Why do always people want to deal with easy things? \u201d he wonders. He also said the ministry in charge of energy has been established to handle the issue: \u201cWe are not alone. Every country faces the same challenges. Fuel shortage always occurs and people should be accustomed to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the south to the north of the capital Bujumbura, few petrol stations were providing fuel and gasoil in the morning of 8 January. In the southern neighborhoods, Mogas station located in Kabondo quarter in Mukaza commune was providing fuel and gasoline after four days without working. Pump attendants met on the spot report that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,26],"tags":[108,749],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11283,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11272\/revisions\/11283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}