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By Godfrey Olukya 12-9-2012
For over a week Sourh Sudan has been experiencing shortage of fuel which has led to increase in transport fares and prices of some commodities.
In all the ten states that make up South Sudan, most of the tanks at fuel stations are empty and those still with some fuel are witnessing long queues of vehicles in need of refueling.
According to the government, the current fuel shortage is due to the delay in off-loading fuel supplies at Mombasa port in Kenya on which most of the land- locked countries in the region depend for imports.
While speaking to journalists in Juba, the undersecretary in the national ministry of petroleum and mining, Macar Aciek said,’We are experiencing shortage of fuel.There have been delays in pumping of fuel from Kenya’s port of Mombasa via pipelines to Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu where fuel companies load their supplies.They have told us that they are working on it.”
Reports from Kenya indicate that a major delay was experienced last week when a fuel vessel failed to off-load it’s supplies in Mombasa for three days .
Authorities in South Sudan have assured the citizens that the situation is expected to get back to normal this week and therefore there is no need to panic.
Some South Sudan nationals and fuel dealers had speculated that the shortage was as a result of lack of hard currency in commercial banks, a charge the ministry of petroleum and mining strongly denies.
Ever since South Sudan stopped exporting her crude oil through Sudan, there has been reports that the government lacks money to manage the state’s affairs appropriately. Soon the oil exports are to resume after the two countries came to an agreement in the on going peace talks.
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