Fuel crisis continues in Sudan

The shortage of fuel, especially of diesel, continues to plague vehicle owners in various states of Sudan.

Khartoum state witnessed hundreds of cars and lorries queueing at petrol stations for the third consecutive day.

The scarcity of fuel also affected the public transport tariffs. Bus drivers have raised their tariffs significantly in order to earn their daily income because have to spend a large part of their day waiting for petrol.

In El Gezira state, south of Khartoum, queues of vehicles grew up to half a kilometre at petrol stations, a car owner complained to Radio Dabanga. He said they are suffering from the crisis for more than two weeks.

People in El Managil in El Gezira complained about the high prices of bus tickets as well. “The price of the ticket from El Managil to Khartoum increased from SDG 85 ($ 12*) to SDG 110 ($ 16) the past week,” a listener reported.

In Mazmoum town in eastern Sudan’s Sennar, petrol and diesel are only available at the black market, for double prices.

The Minister of State for Oil, Saadeldin El Bushra announced in a press statement last week that his Ministry decided to the increase the production of petrol from 2,700 cubic meters to 4,500 cubic meters to meet the consumption needs.

* Based on the official US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS)