KATHMANDU (AFP) — Nepal's capital is set to run out of fuel this weekend as ethnic unrest in the south has stopped supply from neighbouring India to the landlocked country, oil officials said Friday.
"We have kerosene, diesel and petrol left only for one-and-a-half days," Mukunda Prasad Dhungel, an official with the state-run Nepal Oil Corporation, told AFP.
Impoverished Nepal has no oil reserves and relies on its southern neighbour India for all its fuel needs.
The capital has seen long queues at petrol stations this week, with even the black market drying up.
"The Nepal Oil Corporation has not been able to load and bring the fuel purchased from India due to disruptions in the Terai," Dhungel said, referring to the southern plains region that has seen festering ethnic unrest for the last 12 months.
In the last three days a general strike called by the United Democratic Mahadhesi Front (UDMF) has paralysed the region, home to nearly half of Nepal's 27 million population and known as the country's bread basket.
Fuel supplies were already limited due to the Nepali government's non-payment of bills, but the unrest in the south has seen several deliveries attacked.
"The only solution is to use extreme security measures to bring necessary fuel to Kathmandu," the oil official said.
Residents of the Terai, known as Mahadhesis, complain that they have long been discriminated against by people of hill-origin who dominate local and national government as well as the security forces.
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