In June 2024, motorcycles and cars gathered in long lines outside filling stations in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Local broadcaster Radio Ndeke Luka published a photograph from the Tradex station at the Marabena roundabout and reported that queues were forming in several parts of the city as fuel was dispensed only little by little. Some customers waited for half a day.
The immediate cause was a shortage. Reaching the pump did not necessarily mean being able to buy all the fuel one needed. For people who depended on a car or motorcycle for work, time in the queue was also time without transport or income. Others waited beside the vehicle lines with portable containers.
A fuel queue concentrates the movement of a city into one narrow supply point. Each time a vehicle advances, a different journey—work, delivery or a family's errand—moves a little closer to restarting.