Malawians concerned as fuel shortage worsens

Crippling fuel shortages have resurfaced in Malawi, making some people sleep overnight at petrol stations in the hope of filling up.

“I slept right here, and I am still here waiting to fill my tank,” motorist Harry Jim said on Monday.

“The fuel crisis is real.” Motorbike rider Paul Christopher, who normally makes a living ferrying people around, said he had not worked for three weeks because he could not get petrol.

“If fuel comes, we will be paying the debts incurred during this period before we could survive again,” he told Reuters while waiting in a snaking fuel queue in Blantyre, the Southern African country’s commercial capital.

Fuel shortages have been a persistent problem for years and were a major issue at last year’s election.

The situation improved temporarily after President Peter Mutharika won the vote and hiked local fuel prices, before deteriorating again after the Iran war started in late February.

The government blames the crisis on a lack of foreign exchange.

Mutharika hopes a new loan from the International Monetary Fund will help stabilise the economy but a deal is not yet in place.