S. Sudan vows to address alarming fuel shortage
March 17, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudan vowed Tuesday to address the fuel shortage affecting the nation amid the dwindling hard currency reserves and a struggling economy.
“The root cause is something beyond our ability and control. It is external issue,” Adong told reporters in the capital, Juba.
“We bring petrol from Kenya and the quantity Kenya exported last month was not enough for six countries across East Africa. We are working to address this with our supplies and hope to do it soon”, he added.
Shortage of fuel has caused discontents within markets, resulting into angry motorists accusing South Sudan government of not taking interest in real issues as the country faces persistent fuel shortages.
Only few stations have fuel in Juba while the rest have run out of supply.
“These guys must get serious, the problem we have is that we seem to have a playful government in place. They are busy playing games [by] ignoring real issues,” said Duku Samson, a motorist at customs market.
Johnson Alfayo, another motorist, wants explanations from those responsible.
“Let the minister tell the nation the real situation. He has kept promising the nation and things are not changing, why are we suffering like this? How can so many things change within a short period of time? It seems that everyone is free to do anything,” he said, while standing in a long queue of fellow motorists waiting for fuel in Malakia.
“These ministers do not fear anyone, there is no captain anymore. It is just leisure now, people are not working,” stressed Alfayo.
The over one year conflict in South Sudan led to closure of oilfields in its oil-rich Unity state while daily production dropped to 160,000 bpd.
(ST)