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KATHMANDU, NEPAL - NEPAL'S capital on Tuesday received its first deliveries of fuel in a week, an official said, easing a shortage caused by a general strike in the country's ethnically-troubled south.
Ten tankers carrying petrol, diesel and kerosene made it to Kathmandu after authorities imposed a night curfew in some of the southern areas, Mukunda Prasad Dhungel, an official from the Nepal Oil Corp. told reporters.
'The curfews meant that the tankers were able to get here,' said Dhungel, adding that there was still a severe fuel shortage in the capital.
The United Democratic Mahadhesi Front (UDMF) called an indefinite strike across the south of Nepal a week ago - a move that cut off the landlocked country from its sole supplier, Indian Oil.
On Monday, authorities imposed the curfew in four districts to allow the tankers to pass from Nepal's southern border with India to the capital.
The Mahadhesi community have long complained of being excluded from Nepal's corridors of power, and say they were also excluded from the November 2006 peace deal signed between the government and former rebel Maoists.
At least one person has been killed and 150 injured in violent protests in the past week in the southern low-land area known as the Terai. -- AFP
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