Bulletin 10 UNJLC Liberia
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Bulletin No 10
15-21 October 2003
UNJLC bulletins aim to provide a concise weekly overview of UNJLC activities and the present logistical situation in regard to the crisis in Liberia.
In addition sector/country specific reports will be released regularly in order to provide in-depth coverage of priority areas.
Contact details for all UNJLC offices are available on the UNJLC website.
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CONTENTS
1. HIGHLIGHTSFollowing last week’s handover of power to the new Liberian government headed by Gyude Bryant, new government Ministers have been elected. The names of these senior officials from the key Ministries are given below. One of the first policies adopted by the new Liberian government is abolishment of the monopolies on rice and petroleum imports. The new administration has also removed the exit visa requirement imposed on Liberians by the previous regime. On 18 October, 2003 the United Nations undertook a rapid assessment mission via helicopter to Voinjama (Lofa County), a LURD controlled city located on Liberia’s Northern border with Guinea. This was the first international mission to that city in four years. Participants in this mission were WFP, UNICEF, WHO, UNHCR, UNOPS and UNMIL. The city’s and the region’s Immediate needs include drugs, vaccines, rice seed, agricultural tools, shelter, construction and educational materials. The UNJLC Customs and Immigration booklet is complete, and an overview of the customs procedures is included below. The first draft of this report is downloadable from the website. The UNJLC/GTZ Transport Survey is now available on the website. Two more companies have been added to this survey since last week. The UNJLC survey of the warehousing facilities in Monrovia is now downloadable on the website. It includes details of 100 warehouses, 59 of which are in Monrovia city, and another 40 warehouses located in the Freeport of Monrovia. Details of banking services available to the humanitarian community here in Monrovia have now been posted to the website. 2. SECURITYThe security situation continues to improve in and around Monrovia, as UNMIL has been gradually increasing its numbers and making its presence felt. Skirmishes continue between government troops and LURD forces in Duo, of the district of Saclepea in Nimba County. There are reports of mass movement of people within the area. The UNMIL high command visited Nimba County on 18 – 19 Ocotober as part of a fact finding mission. Monrovia remains in UN Security Phase IV, while the rest of Liberia continues to be designated as Phase V. 3. AIR OPERATIONSThe transport of 250 Sierra Leonean refugees for UNHCR will commence this Friday, 24 October from Monrovia to Freetown. Starting next week, the Technical Air Ops officers plan to meet to harmonise and de-conflict the air assets in the region. Participants include UNMIL, UNHCR and WFP. Merlin has recently opened a sub-office in Zwerdu. They submitted an assessment of the airfield in Zwerdu, which is located on the Eastern side of the city of Tchin. The airfield can be accessed by the town via a double-laned road which is in a good condition. Although the airstrip is quite basic (lacking power, lighting, windsocks, or other directional indications), it is adequate for air operations. It has been constructed on a graded crushed rock base with a dirt surface. Details of this airfield will soon be added to the UNJLC website. Initial information has been collected for use in the compilation of a comprehensive planning map of RIA. This will take a form similar to that of the UNJLC Freeport of Monrovia planning map, downloadable from the UNJLC website. Two 20’ containers for use as cargo storage at RIA have been secured by UNJLC for the WFP West Africa Air Service. They have been transported to their allotted space at the airport. Contacts: Contacts for the WFP West Africa Air Service are:
4. SEA PORT OPERATIONSA ship carrying WFP supplies was forwarded to the B.M.C. pier on 21 October. Being an insecure area, far away from the main operations, the ship was sent back and is expected to dock at a more secure pier on 22 October. UNJLC is still in the process of negotiating, on behalf of the United Nations, with the National Port Authority (NPA) for use of land at the Freeport of Monrovia. This land is intended for use as a warehousing area for UN Agencies. An MoU has been drafted and will be presented to the UN Country Team for their consideration. Mr. Samuel Gahn is acting as the Managing Director for Monrovia Free Port until the new person is appointed by the new government administration. He can be contacted at: + 377 551188. Contacts for the Ghanaian contingent at the Freeport are as follows: Commanding Officer – Lt Col James Adoinama: +377 47 530 657 Operations Officer – Major Louman Gbetanu: +377 47 530 654 Military Intelligence Officer – Capt Errigton Commil: +377 47 530 649 5. BORDER CROSSING, CUSTOMS AND IMMIGRATIONThe new administration has removed the exit visa requirement imposed on Liberians by the previous regime. The UNJLC Customs and Immigration Guide has been completed. The first draft of this report is available on the website. Information for this guide has been provided by the Minister of Finance, the Commissioner for Customs and the Commissioner for Immigration. Sample forms used during the customs and immigration process have been supplied for incorporation into the booklet. An overview of the Customs findings are as follows:
6. TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE (Roads, Bridges, Rail, Ports, Airports, Warehouse)The UNJLC/GTZ transport survey is now available from the UNJLC office. The survey is also accessible on the website. Two additional companies have been collected and details have been incorporated into the main survey. An overview of these two additional companies are:
Spot re-gravelling of the Zimmi-Gendema road is half-way completed. This is a temporary but sustainable measure being undertaken by GTZ, UNHCR and SLRA. The actual reconstruction of this road stretch will be carried out by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority at the start of the dry season. 7. LOGISTICS COORDINATIONThe tenth weekly Joint Logistics Meeting was held at 11.00 hours in the HOC, ground floor of the WFP building. Copies of the UNJLC Monrovia Freeport map were distributed to all participants. Copies of the map can be downloaded from the UNJLC website. Also, handouts of the various surveys and guides that UNJLC has conducted were disseminated. Discussions centred around the fees that NGOs have to pay for port access, ID cards for entry to the port, and the NGO’s concerns of involvement in the country route assessments. Regarding the NGO’s concerns, as they do not have the capacity to carry out the necessary technical road or bridge assessments, they can only be involved in the subsequent phases of this project. UNJLC, on behalf the humanitarian community, requested the UNMIL supply office to approach the SRSG regarding the inclusion of UN Agencies in the UNMIL fuel supply chain. As a result, the SRSG has approved the idea and UN agencies may utilise the UNMIL fuel facilities once UNMIL have entered a long-term contract with the supplier. This is expected to occur by February 2004. The contract will cover diesel, petrol and aviation fuel. In order to inform the supplier about expected requirements, UNMIL requests interested UN agencies to indicate their monthly requirements. UNJLC will be given a sample contract in order to assist the UN agencies.
8. CIVIL-MILITARY COORDINATIONThe Bangladeshi Batallion, initially planned to be deployed on 15 October, will deploy this week towards Tubmanburg. On 24 October, a Dutch ship will arrive in Monrovia Freeport. This multi-purpose ship (logistics, transport) will be used primarily for medical evacuation, until the arrival of the Jordan field hospital, scheduled for end of November. As from last Monday, four additional transport helicopters are now deployed in Monrovia. The UN Civil Military Officer updated the list of looted vehicles. A copy of this list will be handed over in the next JMC meeting scheduled for next Saturday. The draft “Code of Conduct” (version 27 September) was again discussed in the UNCT meeting on 20 October. UNHCR, UNICEF and UNDP indicated that they have comments, which will be forwarded as soon as possible to the UN CMCoord Officer. In that same meeting, the UNMIL Force Commander was present. In answering various questions from the UN agencies, he mentioned the following:
UNMIL Emergency Response HOTLINES: UNMIL Force Commander – Lieutenant General Opande, Kenya. Sector 1 Commander – Brigadier General Festus Okonkwo, Nigeria. Civil-Military Co-operations Officers– Capt Lapage: +377 47 532 516 UN Civil-Military Co-ordination – Willy Peerens: +377 47 530 434 WFP Civil-Military Liaison – Albert Fiawosime: +377 47 530 209 UNHCR Civil-Military Liaison – Harry Leefe: +377 47 530 180 UNJLC Civil-Military Liaison – Oleksandr Grebenyuk: +377 47 532 378 9. FUEL (Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene) /COMMODITY PRICESThe exchange to the US $ increased from L $ 40.00 on 14th October to L $ 45.00 on 21st October. One of the first policies adopted by the new Liberian government is abolishment of the monopolies on rice and petroleum imports. It is hoped that will improve the prices of these commodities. Fuel Prices
Commodity Prices
10. LIBERIA UNJLC STAFF
UNJLC Offices are located on the ground floor of the WFP building, UN Drive, Mamba Point, Monrovia. 11. OTHERGyude Bryant was sworn in as the head of the transitional government in Liberia last week on Tuesday, 14 October. Today, Ministers for the Government Ministries were appointed. The names of these officials from the key Ministries and Departments are given below:
The contact numbers are given as were available to us at the time when these new appointees were announced. By next week, UNJLC will provide a more detailed contact list for the new Government Ministries. |
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ABOUT UNJLC
UNJLC is an inter-agency facility reporting, in the current emergency, to the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Liberia, and overall to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. Its mandate is to co-ordinate and optimise the logistics capabilities of humanitarian organisations 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 Liberia will be posted on the UNJLC website. (www.unjlc.org).
