Drivers queue for fuel amid shortage as inflation spirals out of control in war-torn Myanmar

Thousands of drivers queued for fuel amid a severe shortage and spiraling inflation in war-torn Myanmar this week.

Footage shows the long tailbacks in Shan State in the north of the country on Friday.

Local currency the kyat has plunged against the dollar since the military seized power in 2021 and it took a further hit this month.

Desperate junta chiefs said they would release 100 million USD to help importers purchase fuel and oil.

Army chiefs said in a statement: 'The Central Bank of Myanmar has arranged to provide 100 million US dollars towards the fuel oil sector in the foreign currency market.'

Basketcase Burma has been ravaged by years of conflict following the ousting of democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

Propped up with funds from neighboring Thailand - which has ignored international sanctions placed on the Burmese junta - ruling war lords have battled to keep control of the country.

However, civil war continues to rage across the former British outpost which Kipling described in his classic poem Mandalay as a 'cleaner, greener land' than the 'gritty paving stones' of London.