KATHMANDU (AFP) — A fuel crisis in Nepal's capital eased on Saturday as tanker trucks began arriving after an ethnic group agreed to end a paralysing 16-day general strike.
After days of negotiations, the government and the United Democratic Mahadhesi Front (UDMF) struck a deal on Thursday to discuss increased autonomy for the region following crucial polls that will elect a body to rewrite Nepal's constitution.
"The unrest in the southern belt has ended and the flow of fuel is getting back to normal," Digambhar Jha, a senior official of state-run Nepal Oil Corp, told AFP. "We are receiving 2.8 million litres of fuel daily from two major border towns adjoining India."
The UDMF called the strike to win greater political representation for the Mahadhesis, residents of Nepal's southern plains who make up about half the country's 27 million population. At least six people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes with police during violent protests.
Landlocked Nepal depends heavily on oil imports from its southern neighbour India and the unrest caused a severe fuel and food shortage in Kathmandu.
It also posed a threat to elections planned for April, a vital part of a 2006 peace deal reached between the government and former rebel Maoists that ended a decade-long bloody civil war.
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