Eritrea: Fuel shortages

2004-09-22 08:23

Asmara - Eritrea has been rationing the supply of petrol for about two weeks without making any official announcement, diplomats said on Tuesday.

"For approximately the last two weeks, we have to get coupons if we want petrol," explained a Western diplomat in the capital Asmara who asked to remain anonymous.

"We are allowed, per week and per car, 30 litres of petrol and 40 litres of diesel."

"The foreign protocol has asked the embassies to indicate the number of vehicles they possess, but there has been no official explanation. And nothing in the Eritrean media," added the diplomat.

Second time

The general manager of the Petroleum Corporation of Eritrea, Tesfai Zecharias, contacted by phone, declined to comment.

Minister of Energy and Mines Tesfai Gebreselassie, was not available on Monday or Tuesday to answer enquiries.

Last week, George Somerwill, a spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), told reporters when asked about the shortage: "We have reserves and we only do priority operations."

The rationing of fuel could be linked to a possible shortage of foreign currency, several diplomats in Asmara suggested, asking to remain anonymous.

There were no queues at petrol stations in the capital on Tuesday, but over recent days taxi drivers have increased their fares, explaining this was due to petrol shortages.

It is the second time since the official independence of Eritrea, in 1993, that Asmara has rationed petrol.

When fuel was rationed for almost three weeks a year ago, the petroleum corporation chief denied there was a shortage and said the measure had been applied "to put an end to the superfluous consumption of petrol." Eritrea, a small country of the Horn of Africa, imports all of its fuel.

After a 30-year war of independence against Ethiopia (1961-1991), the Eritrean economy was further devastated by a border war with the same neighbour, between 1998 and 2000. - AFP

- SAPA