Syria Steps up Fuel Rationing as Shortages Hit Mobile Network 

People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
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Syria Steps up Fuel Rationing as Shortages Hit Mobile Network 

People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)

Syria announced cuts on Tuesday to the amount of fuel it provides to government workers to help cope with shortages that have led a number of mobile phone towers to go offline. 

Prime Minister Hussein Arnous ordered a 40% reduction in the amount of fuel provided to government workers and restrictions on official travel for non-urgent purposes, according to a statement. 

Public transport was exempted, said the statement, which blamed shortages on delays in shipments and US sanctions. 

Subsidized fuel is already hard to come by in Syria, with people often waiting weeks for notifications to receive less than a full tank of gas. Those who can buy non-subsidized fuel must brave long queues at petrol pumps. 

Fractured by a more than decade of conflict that has frozen on most fronts, Syria's economic crisis is exacting an increasingly heavy toll that the United Nations says has left more people than ever in need of humanitarian aid. 

The once-productive Syrian economy, already hit by extensive damage to infrastructure and industries during the war, has plunged further since 2019, when contagion from neighboring Lebanon's financial crisis led the Syrian pound to collapse. 



Fuel Shortages in Gaza at 'Critical Levels', UN Warns

 A Palestinian burns plastic waste to produce alternative fuel amid scarcity as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in northern Gaza Strip, September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
A Palestinian burns plastic waste to produce alternative fuel amid scarcity as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in northern Gaza Strip, September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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Fuel Shortages in Gaza at 'Critical Levels', UN Warns

 A Palestinian burns plastic waste to produce alternative fuel amid scarcity as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in northern Gaza Strip, September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
A Palestinian burns plastic waste to produce alternative fuel amid scarcity as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, in northern Gaza Strip, September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

The United Nations warned Saturday that dire fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip had reached "critical levels", threatening to dramatically increase the suffering in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"After almost two years of war, people in Gaza are facing extreme hardships, including widespread food insecurity, seven UN agencies cautioned in a joint statement.

"When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation," the statement added.