Fuel smuggling and random kiosks creates a crisis of fuel in Ain Issa
Fuel smuggling and random kiosks creates a crisis of fuel in Ain Issa.
Some areas in the north-east of Syria ( the areas that controlled by Self-Administered of the Syria Democratic Council) are suffering from fuel crisis , especially in Ain Issa region (north of Raqqa which is considered the political capital of the Syria’s Democratic Council “MSD” ), This is because of smuggling fuel outside the region and the spread of random kiosks inside the city.
Ain Issa region (60 km north of Raqqa) is one of the main vital points in the northern countryside of Raqqa city and it is a small center for the Democratic Self-Administration in the north and east of Syria.
Ain Eissa is one of the towns that is experiencing a fuel crisis, due to the lack of gasoline and its high prices when available, in addition to the kiosks for selling gasolin. The price of one liter of ordinary gasoline reached 86 Syrian Pounds (15 US cents), high quality gasoline for 250 SP (35 US cents), which is sold randomly at kiosks for 250 SP (45 US cents).
The taxi driver Abdullah Salih(45 years old) said that gasoline is little, expensive, and of bad quality, pointing out that gasoline is available in Al-jalabia town (30 km west of Ain Issa) for less than the half of the prices in Ain Issa and of a better quality.
Hamidi Al-askar (55 years old and a resident of Ain Issa) has cleared that the smuggling of gasoline by traders and owners of stations, was the reason of the rising prices of fuel by citing one of the incidents he saw in one of the stations. Also, he added that the gasoline ,which they got hardly, is of a low quality and contain kerosene, so he demanded to form a monitoring committee to observe stations.
Ain Issa camp for the displaced also suffer from the lack of gasoline and they complain about it, and they have to buy it at high prices outside the stations.
Ibrahim Khalil (40 years old and a resident of the camp) said that he tried to get the fuel card from the fuel department in the region but he was rejected by them , for “there is no allocation for the camp’s residents.” And in the same time, the administration of the camp also refused to give him the card, despite granting him a driving license, the matter that made buy gasoline from kiosks which cost /250 / SP , stressing that all kiosks owners inside the region have a relationship with the stations owners.
Muhammad Osei ,the fuel department official at the Civil Counsel in Ain Issa in the region of the Self-Administration, declared to North Press, “There is no crisis” and denied all talks about the fuel shortage.
In this context, he briefly pointed out that they receive fuel from Aljazeera and Kobani regions, adding that they distribute the fuel to the stations, in which there is an observer in the fuel department.
As for kiosks that monopolize the market with high prices, he said that they shut down all kiosks after being observed. Muhammad Osei did not reveal the source of the sold fuel at kiosks in region, saying that it gotten from outside the region.
It is worth to mention that, there are about (1200) cars in Ain Issa region, while in the camp are between (700) to (1000) cars, according to informal statistics.
The camp is related to UNHCR and the Civil Council of Raqqa and they had not have the capacity to distribute the allocations of Ain Issa to the IDPs, Osie concluded.
Ain Issa / Yahya Omar / Fayyad Muhammad – NPA