Refugees From Kuwait Cite Sky-High Costs

A gallon of gasoline in oil-rich Kuwait now sells for as much as $120, and sections of the city lack water and electricity, refugees arriving in Jordan said today.

“It’s getting worse. No petrol, no food. You can’t get rice, flour and sugar,” Khaled Abdulrahman said.

He said that before leaving Iraqi-occupied Kuwait on Friday, “I had to go without any food at all for a few days.”

Abdulrahman said a 110-pound bag of flour costs almost 1,000 dinars, or about $3,000, on the open market. A similar amount sells for about $200 at the black market rate of 5 dinars to the dollar.

He said the price increases were caused by the dangers of the trip to Basra, the Iraqi city serving as a principal source of supplies for Iraqi troops based in Kuwait.

He and other refugees said water and electricity were out in some parts of Kuwait city. Others said service was still available in areas where they lived.

All agreed that the telephone service ended abruptly and that prices of many goods were soaring.

A Jordanian refugee who gave his name only as Hamad said he had paid the equivalent of $120 a gallon at the official currency rate for 25 gallons of gasoline. On the black market, the per-gallon cost is roughly $8.

A box of 30 eggs costs about $120 at the official currency rate, after coming from Basra, where the price was $27. Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, has been under constant bombardment by allied warplanes.

Refugees’ accounts indicated that bombs had fallen on civilian areas in Kuwait’s port city of Ahmadi, and at Farwaniya, near the airport.