The long lines of cars, trucks and other vehicles that sometimes wait for days in front of gas stations for a hypothetical fuel delivery have resurfaced for more than two weeks. Many have now stored their cars in the garage, and are doing their shopping on foot, while the prices of basic necessities are soaring. This umpteenth shortage of petroleum products, gasoline and fuel oil, since President Evariste Ndayishimiye has been in power, comes when he addressed the Burundians in August of last year, to tell them that he was now taking the question in hand, promising them that it would not happen again. Why didn’t it work?
The Burundian president had therefore broken the monopoly on the import of petroleum products held until then by Interpetrol, a company under Tanzanian law which controlled the entire sector from import to distribution of these products, including their transport. and their storage.
Evariste Ndayishimiye then instructed Regideso, the public company in charge of supplying water and electricity in Burundi, as well as Prestige, a private company created for the occasion by a shareholding which has never been returned. public, to take over.
Ten months later, nothing has changed for Burundians who have been in their 6th severe shortage of gasoline and fuel oil for more than two weeks, according to numerous testimonies.
Asked a few days ago about the persistence of the fuel crisis despite his promise, President Ndayishimiye explained that it was the fault of “traitors to the nation”.
” The causes of lack of fuel are very complex. I have realized that working with businessmen who are not patriots is like working with traitors. Here, someone who goes to get fuel in Dar-es Salaam where we have plenty in our stocks there, comes back to Burundi and decides to supply only his relatives, and therefore causes a shortage in the country, is that that he is not a traitor? I sometimes wonder if I shouldn’t cross them all off our list of suppliers and look for others. »
Several economists point to a crying lack of foreign currency, with Burundi’s exports covering less than 20% of the country’s imports.