Summary
Content
- OVERVIEW
- SECURITY
- COMMON NFI PIPELINE/COMMON LOGISTICS AGENCY
- AIR OPERATIONS
- FUEL
- ROAD TRANSPORT AND ACCESS
- OTHER
OVERVIEW
Logistics operations in Darfur remain in a constant state of flux. This should be the easiest time of the year for logistics support with good road conditions throughout the region, but because of security issues road transport to many locations in Darfur is impossible or possible with great delays. WFP, for example, has not yet been able to reach their goal of 2 M people to receive assistance in Darfur primarily because of security problems. Security problems have also caused day-to-day disruptions of WFP's delivery of food by air, because of Jet-A1 fuel shortages in Nyala.
NFI through the common pipeline remains marginally adequate for the most basic items (plastic sheeting, blankets, water containers, and soap) but the allocation of two blankets per family is proving too few in many of the higher locations (El Geneina in particular) and OCHA/UNJLC are reviewing ways that additional supplies could be made available.
IDP numbers and locations remain problematic with IDP locations increasing and decreasing in size. Establishing whether 'new' IDP arrivals at a location have received basic NFI at another location is impossible and thus increasing the NFI requirement. OCHA/UNJLC and NGO camp management agencies are reviewing ways to mitigate this problem. Scheduled relocations of IDPs, as for example currently planned for some IDPs in Kalma camp, may also increase NFI needs if the IDPs are unable to bring their NFI (particularly plastic sheeting) with them to the new location.
NFI air cargo operations from Khartoum are not going well. There is a shortage of capacity particularly to El Geneina. UN agencies and NGOs are now chartering their own aircraft or using commercial air freight because of this limited capacity made available by UNHAS. The UNJLC is encouraging UNHAS to increase its NFI capacity. MCDU assistance may be required, preferably through UNHAS, to move the cargo.
UNJLC/CARE established a no-charge trucking operation from Khartoum to the Darfur states to handle lower priority/low value shipments to the Darfurs to reduce the air cargo requirement. This mechanism has been under utilized and its availability will be circulated more widely at the UNCT and NGO coordination meeting levels.
Several meetings were held with DPKO staff to review supply arrangements from the north to south. Based on information provided by DPKO for shipments expected up to end February the military deployment will have no significant impact on transport resources (particularly trucks out of Port Sudan). However, far greater transport requirements are expected from DPKO hired contractors. DPKO has no direct information on this and further research will be required. A DPKO hired contractor for pre-fabricated housing units report informally to the UNJLC that he would have about 800 truck loads from Port Sudan to the south.
The UNJLC is also meeting with DPKO on fuel issues. A separate report will be released in coming weeks. Commercial diesel supply in all locations in Darfur remains adequate.
SECURITY
Security issues remain an ongoing problem is all locations. See the OCHA Sudan situation reports for detailed information.
COMMON NFI PIPELINE/COMMON LOGISTICS AGENCY
Plans for 2005 are being reviewed with OCHA and NGOs. Some of the general issues:
- Basic NFI based on 1.8 M, household size 4.5.
- Close 2004 as of 31 Dec, plan on 100% repeat coverage to old case load and to new arrivals.
- Establish surface transportation arrangements for in-kind contributions from Port Sudan and/or El Obeid.
- Review increasing the blanket allocation to 3 per family with the third being distributed in Nov/Dec just prior to the colder period .
- Confirm that CARE's common logistics system will carry significant NGO/UN general (but not WFP food) cargo within Darfur at no charge.
- Look at ways of strengthening overall logistics support operations in Darfur including things such as light vehicle workshops, road repairs, and generator support.
- Working with OCHA to improve distribution monitoring and reports back from distribution agencies. Improving qualitative assessments of IDP NFI.
Nyala :
AU will post 40 - 50 soldiers at Muhajeria where, due to fear of an attack, over 30,000 IDPs deserted the camps. It is anticipated that these IDPs will return to the camp, hence the need for NFI redistribution.
El Fasher:
OCHA/UNJLC is reviewing NFI needs for IDPs that so far have not received a basic allocation, particularly 'new' arrivals. They are also concerned about the cold weather and the desire to distribute additional blankets.
El Geneina:
Based on a comparison between current OCHA/WFP/NGO reported IDP populations, the UNJLC is reviewing current levels of basic NFI coverage. Initial reports suggest 70,000 people have not received NFI. They are also developing options for a third blanket to all IDPs in western Darfur because of the cold weather.
Stock Situation/ Received during the week
| Date | Commodity | Qty Received | Source |
| 10-Jan-05 | Soap | 27,000 | UNICEF |
| 11-Jan-05 | Blankets | 20,000 | USAID |
Stock Level
| NFI Commodities | In stock in Sudan as of Jan 11th, 2005 | ||||
| El Obeid | El Geneina | Nyala | El Fasher | Total | |
| Blankets | 19,000 | 12,120 | 40,521 | 48,000 | 119,641 |
| Plastic Sheet 4X5M | 15,405 | 1,195 | 12,871 | 23,561 | 53,032 |
| Jerrycan 10l - 20l | 0 | 25,254 | 2,682 | 36,920 | 64,856 |
| Bucket w. lid, 20l | 76,079 | 18,273 | 40,291 | 29,002 | 163,645 |
| Mosquito Nets | 0 | 2,380 | 9,000 | 13,940 | 25,320 |
| Soap (Kg) | 547,898 | 143,654 | 197,000 | 173,065 | 1,061,617 |
| Clothing (womens wraps) | 10,000 | 36,880 | 11,700 | 44,747 | 103,327 |
| Plastic sleeping mats Ea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sanitary material M | 0 | 0 | 200 | 0 | 200 |
AIR OPERATIONS
The AN-12 arrived back from maintenance on Saturday and was cleared to fly on Tuesday. It will be used to clear the backlog of request to El Geneina which presently is 7 days. El Geneina was last served more than one month ago. The AN-12 did two flights to El Geneina, while the IL-76 did one flight. In total 35MT (6 vehicles) was delivered.
With the return of the AN-12 (dedicated to NFI) regular daily flights to the three Darfur locations have resumed. Due to distances only one flight will be done per day on the AN-12. The C-130 that was initially earmarked to do NFI flights is not cleared yet by SCAA.
Currently in country assets comprise of: Cargo - 3 Illyushin 76 aircraft ( 2 in El Obeid and 1 in Khartoum), 3 Hercules C-130 aircraft (2 in El Obeid and 1 in Khartoum - not cleared) and 1 Antonov 12 (Khartoum). Existing passenger fleet comprise 3 Beechcraft 1900s (19 seat capacity), 1 Beechcraft 200 (9 seat capacity), 3 Cessna Caravans (10 seat capacity) and 1 Dash 8 DHC-8 ( 36 seat capacity). 2 Helicopters are based in Nyala and 1 in El Fasher
FUEL
There have been no major fuel price changes during the reporting period;
Nyala:
WFP ran short of Jet-A1 fuel. As a consequence, the S. Darfur Helicopter operation is reduced to only essential/emergency/life saving activities. In other words, there have been no flights yesterday and today (09/01/2005).
WFP intends to replenish its Jet-A1 stock by airlifting fuel in drums from El-Obeid.
At the moment, there are a number of missions in Nyala - the most important being the fact finding/verification mission. These missions and a number of other needs assessments mission rely entirely on Helicopter operations. This is because the most viable (secure) means of transport to a No Go Areas (and to some extent to non-GoS controlled territories) is to travel by Heli. This makes the Jet-A1 fuel an essential commodity, and the absence or the lack of it will add an extra strain to the already crumbling Sudan logistics infrastructure. As you can imagine, this will have a reverse impact on the delivery of humanitarian supplies/assistance to those in need.
Below is the weekly fuel price matrix for ease of reference.
Fuel prices in Litres/Darfur Crisis.
Week 2, 3-9 January 2005
Price in Sudanese Dinar per Imperial Gallon / Litre
NB : 1 IG = 4,546 Litres
| Khartoum | El Fasher | Nyala | El Geneina | El Obeid | ||||||
| IG | L | IG | L | IG | L | IG | L | IG | L | |
| Diesel | 345 | 76 | 680 | 150 | 764 | 168 | 1,000 | 220 | 380 | 84 |
| Petrol | 555 | 122 | 800 | 176 | 1,081 | 238 | 1,125 | 247 | 600 | 132 |
| Kerosene | 342 | 75 | 700 | 154 | 766 | 168 | 1,250 | 275 | 250 | 55 |
| JetA1 | 330 | 73 | 780 | 172 | 684 | 150 | 700 | 154 | 368 | 81 |
ROAD TRANSPORT AND ACCESS
UNJLC El Geneina reports a general increase in market prices because of increased transportation costs for goods coming from Khartoum and other locations to the east of there.
OTHER
Douglas Osmond is the OIC of JLC Sudan pending the return of Jens Grimm who is on mission to the Indian Ocean.
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 channeled through WFP. The UNJLC project document for Sudan can be viewed on the UNJLC website (www.unjlc.org)