{"id":50498,"date":"2026-05-02T11:19:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/?p=50498"},"modified":"2026-05-02T11:19:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T08:19:54","slug":"from-hormuz-to-megenagna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/50498\/","title":{"rendered":"From Hormuz to Megenagna"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fuel crisis turns commutes into ordeals, exposing the human cost of a global crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sky over Addis Ababa did not simply leak last Wednesday; it gave way. At the Megenagna transport hub, one of the capital\u2019s busiest junctions, the air hung heavy with diesel fumes and humidity. Hundreds of commuters clustered under a patchwork of umbrellas, damp shoulders pressed together, all pursuing the same aim: a seat on a blue-and-white minibus bound for Bole, Gerji Mebrat Hail or Goro.<\/p>\n

Among them was a woman in her mid-40s, moving through the crowd with visible urgency. She gripped a half-broken umbrella that offered little protection. After nearly 30 minutes in a line that advanced by inches, she managed to climb aboard a minibus.<\/p>\n

On a rainy night in Addis Ababa, the notion of capacity is elastic. A vehicle built for 12 carried close to 20 passengers, packed shoulder to shoulder as the windows fogged with breath.<\/p>\n

As the taxi pulled toward Goro, the fare collector\u2014known locally as a woyalla<\/em>\u2014began calling out prices.<\/p>\n

\u201c60 birr to Goro. 40 to Mebrat Hail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement was met with silence. For many, the increase was stark in a city where rising food and transport costs have tightened already strained budgets. Still, most passengers reached for their pockets, paying what had become, in effect, the surcharge of scarcity.<\/p>\n

When the collector turned to the woman with the broken umbrella, she hesitated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much?\u201d she asked quietly.<\/p>\n

\u201c60 birr,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

What followed broke the subdued rhythm of the ride. The woman began to sob, her voice unsteady as she spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only have 40 birr,\u201d she said. \u201cI am a cleaner. I scrub floors and toilets all day for 3,700 birr a month. My husband is a laborer. My children are waiting at home. How can I pay 60?\u201d<\/p>\n

The cramped interior shifted. What had been a space of silent strangers became, briefly, a place of shared witness.<\/p>\n

She described the distance still ahead\u2014a walk to Sefera, beyond Goro\u2014and the arithmetic that no longer added up: a wage that could not cover transport, let alone food and rent.<\/p>\n

Her distress prompted an immediate response. The fare collector\u2019s tone softened; he returned her money and waved her through. Other passengers, many facing similar constraints, quietly offered small contributions.<\/p>\n

But the moment of solidarity gave way to a wider argument. Attention turned to the forces shaping their predicament.<\/p>\n

The driver, navigating the rain-slicked road, spoke up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a choice,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes we wait two or three days in line for fuel. Other times we have to buy it on the black market\u2014500 or 600 birr a liter\u2014just to keep working. I have a family to support, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

His voice lowered as he described shrinking margins and mounting anxiety. With official tariffs rising, he said, informal fuel markets were compounding the strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese illegal dealings,\u201d he added, \u201cwill burn whatever is left.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also alluded to allegations that some fuel stations were withholding supply, reselling it at inflated prices after dark \u2014 claims that are difficult to verify but widely circulated among drivers.<\/p>\n

Inside the minibus, the conversation drifted from personal hardship to broader questions.<\/p>\n

Passengers began to speak of distant events \u2014 the war in Iran and the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 geopolitical tremors unfolding thousands of miles away, now registering in something as immediate as a taxi fare between Megenagna and Goro.<\/p>\n

As the minibus pressed on through the rain, the city remained lit against the storm. The woman fell quiet, her earlier anguish settling into a heavy, anticipatory silence.<\/p>\n

What unfolded in that minibus reflects a broader strain gripping the country.<\/p>\n

Across Addis Ababa, daily life has been reshaped by protracted fuel shortages. For more than three weeks, transport hubs that once pulsed with the constant churn of minibuses have slowed markedly. At filling stations, lines of vehicles \u2014 from \u201ckitkit<\/em>\u201d Isuzus and freight trucks to taxis and Higer buses \u2014 extend for kilometers, waiting for supplies that arrive sporadically, if at all.<\/p>\n

The disruption has rippled outward. Commuters \u2014 students, civil servants, the elderly \u2014 now spend hours searching for transport. Analysts and residents alike describe the situation as more than a logistical bottleneck; it has evolved into an economic shock that is diffusing through multiple sectors.<\/p>\n

Fuel scarcity has driven up transport costs, which in turn has pushed the price of basic goods higher, intensifying an already acute cost-of-living strain. For low-income workers, a single trip can now absorb a disproportionate share of daily earnings.<\/p>\n

Alongside the visible pressures of global supply disruptions, a parallel system has emerged within the city\u2019s fuel market.<\/p>\n

Interviews with drivers, traders and residents point to what they describe as an expanding informal network, in which fuel is diverted from official distribution channels and resold at sharply inflated prices. The allegations \u2014 difficult to independently verify \u2014 suggest collusion among some station workers, intermediaries and opportunistic traders.<\/p>\n

Motorcycle riders have become central to this shadow supply chain, transporting fuel in jerrycans through congested streets to customers willing to pay a premium.<\/p>\n

In the neighborhood known as 22 Mazoriya, a young man who goes by the nickname \u201cDoctor<\/em>\u201d exemplifies this shift. By day, he shines shoes. Increasingly, he supplements his income by delivering fuel on a motorbike.<\/p>\n

On a recent afternoon, he was seen transferring fuel from his motorcycle tank into a taxi \u2014 a transaction that has become more common as formal supply falters.<\/p>\n

Speaking openly, he described a system that, in his account, has become routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting fuel like this is now normal,\u201d he said, alleging that some station employees divert supply toward informal channels where margins are higher.<\/p>\n

He outlined a straightforward, if precarious, business model: purchasing fuel \u2014 often late at night or before dawn \u2014 at prices ranging from 300 to 400 birr, then reselling it for 500 to 600 birr to drivers and businesses unable to secure it through official means.<\/p>\n

For him, the calculus is pragmatic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has become an additional source of income,\u201d he said. \u201cThe situation has opened opportunities for us. War is not something to welcome, but as long as this continues, there is work here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, the Addis Ababa Transport Bureau had introduced a priority allocation system, giving public transport vehicles first access to fuel. Officials also created a dedicated task force that has been deployed to curb hoarding and price gouging at filling stations.<\/p>\n

The bureau has also urged mass transit operators to run at full capacity and called on residents to walk short distances where possible. Private vehicle owners, it said, should limit nonessential travel and conserve fuel as the country weathers the shock.<\/p>\n

For many commuters, those measures have offered little immediate relief.<\/p>\n

Admasu Yimer, who lives in Koye Feche in Sheger City and works in the Jemo area, describes the strain in blunt terms. Self-employed, he now spends at least four hours each day waiting for transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, I would leave early and reach my office by 8 a.m.,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, after standing in lines for hours, I arrive around 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pattern repeats in the evening, he added, with long queues just to get home. The cumulative effect, he said, is eroding both income and routine. \u201cOur income hasn\u2019t increased,\u201d he said. \u201cBut everything else has.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a consultative forum organized by the Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia on April 28 under the theme \u201cSocial Development for Nation Building,\u201d PM Abiy Ahmed addressed public frustration over the persistent queues, arguing that the country has remained operational despite mounting global pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always talk about queues,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are queues, but fuel problems have occurred across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a point of comparison, he cited the international aviation sector, noting that while carriers such as Lufthansa have reduced operations amid rising costs, Ethiopian Airlines has largely maintained its schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t heard people appreciating Ethiopian Airlines,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying we should be praised, but I\u2019ve only heard complaints while things were actually functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister also defended the government\u2019s intervention, saying the state had absorbed a sharp increase in fuel costs \u2014 allocating roughly 20 billion birr in a single month to stabilize supply.<\/p>\n

Despite ongoing fuel scarcity, the\u00a0 government has confirmed the complete reinstatement of diesel supply to pre-disruption levels.<\/p>\n

During his media address, Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, stated that at the height of the disruption, the nation experienced a 50 percent reduction in its daily diesel supply, decreasing to approximately 4.5 million liters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe daily diesel supply will now be reinstated to the prior level of 9 million liters per day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fuel crisis turns commutes into ordeals, exposing the human cost of a global crisis The sky over Addis Ababa did not simply leak last Wednesday; it gave way. At the Megenagna transport hub, one of the capital\u2019s busiest junctions, the air hung heavy with diesel fumes and humidity. Hundreds of commuters clustered under a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":50499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1942],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50500,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50498\/revisions\/50500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}