![South Sudan Information minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth [Photo via SSNA]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/rss-inister-for-information.png?ssl=1)
The fuel shortage has hit oil-rich South Sudan’s capital city, Juba, as vehicles lined up for hours at fuel stations.
Most tanks at fuel stations are empty, while those that had them had long queues.
The government blamed the current fuel shortages on foreign drivers who packed their vehicles at Elegu, a border entry point between South Sudan and Uganda following the road ambush.
South Sudan Information Minister, Michael Makuei Lueth warned stations owners against any attempt to supply fuel to the black market.
“My only advice to fuel stations and masters is that they should attempt to take this fuel to the black market. Anybody found to be selling fuel in the black market will be held answerable. He will show us the source of his black market,” Makuei told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Juba on Friday.
Makuei said that the government will take any necessary steps to deal with anybody found selling fuel in the unauthorized market.
“It may be true some of the fuel stations can shut down, and said ours have finished meanwhile it is still there and then they will come and sell it to others so that they can go and sell it in the black market,” he said.
A senior government official assured the citizens that the situation will get back to normal as the government is engaging Uganda authorities to allow goods to enter South Sudan.
“We neighbors here have decided to block or closed their borders for new cars which are coming in with goods being fuels or any other goods,” he said.
“This is the one responsible for the current scarcity of fuel and other items in the markets. Efforts are underway; we are talking with neighbors so that they open the borders,” he added.
