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Thousands of litres of fuel destined for Zimbabwe are docked at Mozambique’s port of Beira because the government of President Robert Mugabe has failed to raise payment for the supplies, the ‘Financial Gazette’ said on Thursday.
Quoting an official from the troubled state oil procurement company, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), the reports said fuel had been off-loaded from ships into storage tanks at Beira this week but could not be pumped into the pipeline to Zimbabwe because the government had no money to pay for it.
“We have sufficient supplies at Beira to sustain us for some days but we have not paid yet,” the official said. He added that 24 tankers containing an assortment of fuels had also been loaded in South Africa and were expected in Harare today to ease a worsening shortage. The newspaper added that many filling stations in the capital, Harare, were rationing both petrol and diesel. Paraffin was also in short supply, with long queues forming at the few garages that sold it in Harare’s high-density suburbs.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
