Several Ethiopian towns have begun to adopt a fuel rationing system to cope with fuel shortage over the past weeks, the weekly newspaper Capita reported on Sunday.

The report said fuel retailers in the eastern city of Dire Dawa, which faced the severest shortage in all the cities, said they almost started to supply fuel under quota. In the eastern border town of Jimma, gasoline has not been available in all retailers but the supply of diesel oil was still ample. The fuel retailers there said their suppliers explained that the shortage was caused by transport problems.

The capital Addis Ababa also saw fuel shortage in the past couple of days but the situation was calm now after oil trucks have transferred loads of oil to the city.

Ethiopia has imported 1.9 billion liters of fuel of various types over the past nine months with around 829 million U.S. dollars.

Source: Xinhua