Rate of daily arrivals from Eritrea increased exponentially

Emerging business activities along the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea has created a shortage of fuel supply in major towns of Tigray, The Reporter has learnt.

Following the opening of the border of the two countries, there is a significant increase in the transit of vehicles. In light of these, according to the data gathered from Tigray Urban Development, Trade & Industry Bureau–on average, 1,000 vehicles arrive at Tigray with the figure sometimes going up to 2,000. The vehicles mostly are automobiles, few freight vehicles as well as public buses.

This resulted in a shortage of Benzene in towns of Tigray, particularly Mekelle, Adigrat, Axum, Wekro as well as Adewa. Those who have arrived from Eritrea prefer to feel their cars here in Ethiopia given the price advantage as well the limited accessibility of the product in Eritrea.

“The problem needs a solution,” Daniel Mekonne, deputy head from Tigray Urban Development, Trade & Industry Bureau told The Reporter.

Given the type of vehicles that are coming from Eritrea, each car will carry at least 400 liters per day, he added.

The shortage which is mostly attributed to growing business activities in the borders towns is also promoted by other factors, The Reporter has learnt.

There are few fuel and gas distributing companies who has gas stations in those affected towns, which recently, have stopped supplying given the lawsuit by the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise.

“As a result of this, we are not getting benzene which was supposed to come via those distributors,” said Daniel.

“We know about the shortage,” Tadesse Hailemariam, CEO of The Enterprise told The Reporter.

In related news, a new report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees which was released last week has indicated that the reopening of the border has also resulted in an increase in number of people arriving from Eritrea.

From this, 90 percent of the new arrivals are women and children, according to the report. This is in contradiction to the current feature of refugee camps in Tigray, which is dominated by young men.

The average daily rate of arrivals is increasing from 53 to approximately 390 individuals, reads the report. Between September 12 and October, 02, 2018, a total of 6,779 refugees were registered at the Endabaguna Reception Centre with a further 2,725 awaiting relocation at the border to Endabaguna.