Bulletin 41 UNJLC Sudan

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• SECURITY
• AIR OPERATIONS
• ROAD TRANSPORT AND ACCESS
• COMMON NFI PIPELINE
• FUEL

SECURITY

• Commercial road traffic is hampered in South Darfur with hijacking of commercial trucks carrying relief commodities for a UN agency on 14 and 17 December on the road from el-Obeid to Nyala. Subsequently, commercial trucks operating for other organisations, including Care, carrying commodities for the Shelter / NFI pipeline discontinued movement and returned into a safe area.
• In other locations, both in South and North Darfur, commercial trucks have been stopped by bandits and reportedly looted fuel (el-Daen-Nyala) and stole belongings of the drivers (East of Kebkabiya in North Darfur).
• Armed clashes between GoS forces and SLA continued in the area east of Nyala. 
• The National Movement of Reform and Development (NMRD), a rebel group active in West Darfur signed an agreement with the Government of Sudan, under which it will respect the N’Djamena agreement of 8 April 2004 on humanitarian ceasefire and the Addis Abeba agreement of 28 May 2004 on establishing a ceasefire commission and the deployment of observers in Darfur.
• Extra vigilance is still advised when travelling on all roads in Darfur.

AIR OPERATIONS

• The WFP HAS ILyushin (dedicated food aircraft) which was also used to move NFI commodities is returning to its country of origin today.  Only one flight was done to Nyala and El-Fasher during the last week, moving 27.9 MT to the mentioned locations.  Amongst the cargo were two vehicles and an Ambulance.  From Nyala four vehicles (10.4 MT) were backhauled to Khartoum.
• A replacement ILyushin is being expected in Khartoum within this week.  This aircraft is only expected to fly in January 2005, due to documentation that needs to be completed.
• UNJLC is presently making use of the WFP HAS passenger fleet to move very small emergency cargo the field.  The amount of cargo that is being moved depends highly on the space available in the aircraft, determined by the aircrew
• A C130 which is in Khartoum at present is awaiting crew visas and authority from SCAA to be used by WFP HAS, the aircraft is older than 20 years.
• Another C130/L100 is in Lockichokio, Nairobi at present, and is ready to fly to Sudan once the Visa’s for the aircrew are available.  The estimated date for the aircraft to arrive in Khartoum is before 23 December 2004, the aircraft is expected to start operating as soon as all the clearances have been obtained.
• A third C130 is in Nairobi awaiting the outcome of the SCAA waiver, this aircraft is also being restricted to fly in Sudan, due to the 20 year limit.
• Meetings were held by WFP HAS with the Sudan Civil Aviation Authority on 15 December to confirm their continuing support to provide waivers for aircraft over the 20-year age limit. An official response is awaited from the Director-General of SCAA.
• In South Darfur, military intelligence rejected without proper justification passenger manifests presented within 36-hour limitation on numerous occasions this week.
• The current WFP cargo aircraft capacity (all dedicated for food deliveries) stands at four Illyushin 76s and one Antonov 12, based in el-Obeid. One Illyushin will return to Bulgaria on 21 December. Another Antonov is expected to return to Sudan this week following scheduled maintenance. The passenger fleet remains at 3 Beechcraft (18 seater), 3 Cessna Caravans and 1 DHC-8 (36-seater). In addition, 4 helicopters are based in Nyala (3) and El Fasher (1).

Statistical representation of NFI flights:

ROAD TRANSPORT AND ACCESS

• WFP dispatched a total of 524 MT of mixed commodities by rail.
• Three trains have been observed derailed between Nyala and El Edien. These are carrying town fuel amongst other general container goods. They were expected to arrive in Nyala already a week ago, it is unclear when they will be able to continue their journey to destination Nyala. Trains are still being heavily escorted by Police and military.

COMMON NFI PIPELINE

• To feed into the Common NFI Pipeline, USAID / OFDA made available five flights during this ongoing week, of which two have already arrived. The first one transported 20/12/2004 a total of 20,000 blankets to el-Fasher and the second one the same amount and commodity on 21/12/2004 to Nyala.
• The remaining three flights are expected to arrive on 23, 26 and 28 December 2004 with 20,000 blankets el-Fasher), 630 Plastic rolls (one to el-Fasher one to Nyala) respectively.
• Buckets: OCHA, UNJLC and other humanitarian actors involved in NFI distributions have found that the current production of buckets is in excess to the Darfur requirement. For this reason, it was recommended that UNICEF ceases or reduces to the minimal possible amount the production of buckets. Any available funds previously earmarked for this should be re-allocated for the production of jerry cans instead.

North Darfur

• Trucks carrying 700 rolls (4x50m) of plastic sheets for Samaritans Purse and 8,000 pieces of blankets for the common pipeline that has been en-route to Nyala from Khartoum and El Obied are reportedly stuck in and around el Dien (Muhajeria) pending improved access. UNJLC in collaboration with CARE and other humanitarian actors are looking at other alternative routes and ways, which will enable the trucks to reach their final destinations.
• On 18/12/2004, the humanitarian community re-commenced NFI distributions to SLA controlled areas such as Thabit, Dessa, Anka and Hashaba.  This follows a halt to the humanitarian operations on 16 Dec. due to security concerns

South Darfur:

• The balance of the NFI kits (previous Kalma new arrival distribution 1 Dec 04) was reissued to Oxfam and distributed to newly arriving IDPs in Kalma identified from the new wave of fighting (Labado and Marla areas). It is predicted that there will be a need for more distributions in the coming weeks as these IDPs move out of Taisha, Marla and Labado areas.

Received during the week:

Present Stock:

FUEL

Fuel prices in litres/Darfur Crisis - Week 51 - 13-19December 2004

• All over Darfur the shortage of Jet A1 fuel continues. WFP is currently airlifting Jet-A1 to Darfur in drums. Additional fuel is expected to arrive soon by road from El-Obeid. South Darfur presently has a stock of 33 drums (200lt/drum) of Jet A1 for the helicopters as a reserve.
• Other fuel commodities are available in limited but temporarily sufficient quantities. The situation may be subject to deterioration as the security on the access routes remains volatile. Presently several trucks are held back in el-Daen and can't proceed to their destination Nyala (as of 20/12/2004).

El Obeid

• The diesel fuel price increased from 360 SD per gallon to 380 SD. Fuel is supplied to Darfur from El Obeid. As such, increase of diesel prices in the three Darfur may be expected.

ABOUT UNJLC

UNJLC is an inter-agency facility reporting, in the current emergency, to the Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, and overall to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. Its mandate is to coordinate and optimize the logistics capabilities of humanitarian organizations in large-scale emergencies. UNJLC operates under the custodianship of WFP who are responsible for the administrative and financial management of the Centre. UNJLC is funded from voluntary contributions channelled through WFP. The UNJLC project document for Sudan can be viewed on the UNJLC website (www.unjlc.org)