Malawian fuel shortages due to Mozambican port congestion?
President Mutharika assumed that fuel shortages in Malawi were the fault of port congestion in Mozambique
It seems that the bickering between Mozambique and Malawi isn’t over yet since Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika blamed congested Mozambique ports for fuel shortages in the landlocked country.
The two countries had a fall out late last year over Malawi’s plans to use the Shire and Zambezi Rivers as transport conduits to the coast. It resulted in a Malawian river craft being detained inside Mozambique along with a senior military attaché on board, while in Malawi a delegation that included the Malawi president and the presidents of Zambia and Zimbabwe were left waiting for its arrival.
Lately, Malawi’s President Mutharika said that fuel shortages in Malawi were the fault of port congestion in Mozambique. A spokesman of the Mozambican state railway refuted these claims by accusing the Malawian president of spreading lies. Surprisingly President Mutharika’s finance minister didn’t back his president. Malawi’s finance minister clarified the whole issue by saying that Malawi routinely runs out of fuel because it does not have the foreign exchange to pay the suppliers. To be continued?
Source: Ports & Ships
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