JUBA, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Acute fuel shortage has disrupted the media business in South Sudan as all newspapers in the war-torn country have ceased to print for the last two days.
Ana Namiriano, Managing Editor of Juba Monitor, a leading English daily newspaper, said Tuesday the only company printing newspapers in the country stopped working since last week after running out of fuel, adding that all the newspapers have halted circulation until further notice.
"We have made great loses for the last two days because of lack of fuel at the printing press. They told us that they are using 200 liters per day, which is expensive to be sustained by fuel from the black market," Namiriano said.
"I appeal to the authorities to assist the printing companies with fuel so that they can resume their work and we also give information to the public," she added.
Rao Mahamedi, a manager for Universal Printing Press which prints all newspapers in South Sudan said they used to buy fuel at 0.40 U.S. dollars per liter and now the price has increased to 1 dollar, which is costly for their business.
He said they would only resume printing if the company imports fuel from the neighboring countries.
"To miss reading newspapers for one day is a big loss to the country because the public will be left with information void. Let the authorities do something to ease the ongoing fuel shortage to enable the media industry to carry its duties," said Oliver Modi, Chairperson of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS).
Mary Agith, head of the Association for Media Development in South Sudan (AMDISS) pledged to engage the authorities to grant media institutions special status during issuing of fuel by the state-owned oil company Nilepet.
"It's too unfortunate that the newspapers are not in circulation for two days and people are only relying on radios for information. AMDISS will engage the government and the management of the newspapers to see if they can be given special consideration to get fuel," Agith said.
Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudan has been grappling with frequent fuel shortages that have crippled business running on generators and the transport sector.
The price of fuel in the black market goes for 1,000 South Sudan Pounds per liter, an equivalent of 7 U.S. dollars compared to the subsidized price of 22 South Sudan Pounds (0.15 dollars) per liter.
The war-torn East African nation depends on oil revenue for 98 percent of its budget, but production decreased significantly due to civil war that erupted in December 2013, causing most oilfields in the country's oil-rich northern region to shut down.
This led to a fall in production to less than 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 350,000 bpd in 2011.
South Sudan is currently struggling with hyperinflation amid shortage of foreign reserves to support imports. Enditem
