CAIRO - This old lady is seen with a pushchair with her empty butane cylinder on. She'd taken it to a gas depot in the Cairo suburb of el-Marg, hoping to exchange it for a full one, but unfortunately they'd run out. As a cold snap has hit Egypt's governorates over the past two weeks, the seasonal butane gas shortages have popped up again. Three people died early this year in battles to buy the cylinders, whose price has soared to LE30. Governmental outlets have run out of the cylinders, which are subsidised by the Government to the tune of more than five times their actual price. As defined by the Government, a gas cylinder should only cost the public LE2.75. Government inspectors have indicted hundreds of opportunists who've been operating a black market in subsidised butane gas. However, the problem persists, as the poor lady with the pushchair knows only too well.
