The Fuel Crisis in South Sudan

 South Sudan soon will enter its fifth year of fighting amid starvation, mass displacement and allegations of war crimes.

Ninety-eight percent of South Sudan’s economy comes from oil, but the country faces one of its worst fuel crises since civil war began in 2013. Civilians feel the brunt of the crisis. Drivers often hire people to sleep in their parked cars at the pumps while they borrow other transport to keep working. Ffuel on the black market for almost 10 times the usual price. Instead of paying 1,200 South Sudanese pounds ($6.50) for 60 liters at the pump, it can be up to 10,800 South Sudanese pounds ($58) for just 20 liters.

South Sudan has Africa’s third-largest oil reserves, with 3.5 billion barrels. Based on government figures, current production should bring in hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But without refineries, the country exports crude oil and must import fuel.

The situation deteriorated when the government “started monopolizing the fuel trade” by kicking out private oil companies to control access to U.S. dollars, says Edmund Yakani, executive director of the nonprofit Community Empowerment for Progress Organization.

Nile Petroleum says it can afford to bring in only enough fuel to serve one-third of South Sudan’s population. It denies expelling private companies, saying the economic crisis forced them to leave. Many are accusing the government of corruption and of worsening the country’s overall crisis. Nile Petroleum denies wrongdoing, blaming the lack of funds on a reduction in South Sudan’s oil production from almost 300,000 barrels a day before the civil war to roughly 130,000. It says declining global oil prices and the civil war’s damage to oil facilities have hurt.

“Instead of using oil revenue to provide public services and improve the livelihoods of South Sudan’s population, the ruling clique has used these funds to procure weapons, finance a horrific civil war and enrich themselves,” says J.R. Mailey, director of the investigative team at The Sentry, a Washington-based group that has reported on links between corruption and mass atrocities.

“The money’s being kept abroad,” a member of South Sudan’s parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety, told The Associated Press. The money the government should be receiving for oil exports is enough to fuel the entire country, the lawmaker says.

Government soldiers have been accused of threatening civilians at gas stations and cutting in line to stock up on fuel to sell illegally.

“If someone tells you to move with a gun you can’t argue,” says Simon Kinuthia, a driver in Juba. “Fuel is connected to everything,” Kinuthia says. “And right now, it’s making people suffer.”