Crisis data snapshot
Six months of community data on the fuel shortage
From April to October 2026, Há Combustível turned thousands of small community signals into a cumulative record of scarcity, queues, rationing, and local differences across Maputo, Matola, and Beira.
Street-level data
An unannounced rationing system emerged.
Community observations exposed limits and informal rules that did not appear in official statistics.
Per-car limits mentioned
37 mentions of a limit were found in the observations.
“They are filling 1,000 meticais per car.”
“No limit, but they do not accept jerrycans.”
“Only people with a password can fill up.”
“Maximum 1,000 MT — but if you push, they fill the tank.”
42reports of gallons or jerrycans being refused
27stations found closed
1,146observations written by users
The cost in time
Half an hour per tank. Every day.
Waiting became a measurable daily cost for people trying to find fuel.
37 minaverage wait
21%waited more than one hour
2,380queues timed
Stations out of fuel, by time of day
Cumulative data from April to October 2026 · 7,778 reports.
Geography
There was not one crisis. There were dozens of local ones.
Neighbourhood-level data shows how sharply the experience changed from one place to another.
Worst experience
NeighbourhoodNo fuelWait
COOP28%46 min
Museu32%43 min
Baixa23%42 min
Polana Cimento27%41 min
Aeroporto34%40 min
Best experience
NeighbourhoodNo fuelWait
Casa Branca17%29 min
Marracuene16%30 min
Tchumene21%32 min
Zimpeto18%32 min
Machava Sede16%33 min
Where fuel was missing more often, people also waited longer — the two measures moved together.
Neighbourhoods with 80+ reports and 40+ timed queues.
The cycle
Attention lasted days. Scarcity lasted months.
Reports surged during visible peaks, while the underlying shortage kept returning over the following months.
Reports received during the week
% of stations with a queue or no fuel
Weeks with 30+ reports are shown. The two charts use different scales and are not directly comparable.
Why this matters
None of this was recorded anywhere else.
The 1,000-meticais rationing, one-hour queues, and the neighbourhoods where fuel was hardest to find do not appear in an official statistic.
This evidence exists because thousands of people stopped for thirty seconds to report what they saw.
That is what civic data is: evidence that only exists because people built it together.
CoverageMaputoMatolaBeira
