UNJLC Sudan Logistics Bulletin

UNJLC Bulletin Contents
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1. HIGHLIGHTS
2. SECURITY/ ACCESS
3. LOGISTICS GENERAL
4. COMMON NFI PIPELINE
5. SURFACE TRANSPORT
6. AIR OPERATIONS
7. FUEL PRICES
8. LOGISTICS ASSESSMENTS
9. SOUTH, EAST AND TRANSITIONAL AREAS
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1. HIGHLIGHTS

Light Vehicle Convoy to the Darfurs: The sixth UNJLC-facilitated light vehicle convoy for 2005 reached El Fasher on 20 December.

UNJLC Interactive Aviation Mapping Tool: UNJLC has released, to a limited group of aviation officers and air service users, a first draft of its interactive, aviation mapping tool. The tool, hosted on the UNJLC website, depicts air routes and allows users to click on a route to view those airlines that operate along them. Similarly the tool depicts airstrips in Sudan and, once clicked upon, shows a pop up box containing standard infrastructure information on the airstrip.  An aerial photograph or diagram of the location is included.

UNJLC requests information on other agencies' 2006 NFI plans: To assist with the NFI CP coordination in 2006, UNJLC requests information from all agencies intending to procure and distribute (non common pipeline) NFIs in Darfur in 2006.

The security situation across the Darfur region remains a serious concern particularly in West Darfur and areas to the south of Nyala.

2. SECURITY/ACCESS

MOSS Compliance: The United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) advised the UN community in Darfur that they shall be conducting a "Minimum Operating Security Standards" (MOSS) inspection of all stations and agencies in Darfur in the 3rd week of January 06. 

West Darfur
Tensions remained high in West Darfur during the month of December with: heavy fighting reported in Zalengei, Sealia and Masteri; ambushes reported on roads north of El Geneina, and between Silea and Kulbus; incidents reported at Kerenek and Abu Sourge.  To add to the tension, there was fighting reported at Adre (located on the Chadian side of the border) between Chadian opposition groups; and the recent presence in West Darfur of Chadian military deserters allied to opposition groups.

UNDSS Road Categorization: In November UNDSS implemented a road categorization model in West Darfur with successful results. It is UNDSS' intent that this standard be employed Darfur wide.  The alphabetical road categorization system to be used is as follows:

Source: UNDSS

UNHAS Helicopter Operations Suspended: In December, UNHAS suspended its helicopter service to the north of El Geneina (Kulbus, Sirba and Silea), and some areas to the south of El Geneina (Masteri, Kongo Haraza, Beida and Arara) due to insecurity. Flights to Far Barango were also suspended due to crowds on the ground limiting landing access (flights may resume when clearance is received from the AU to utilise their Helicopter Landing Sites).  

INGO Evacuations: As reported on 8 December, INGOs   evacuated the majority of their staff operating in the Masteri, Beida and Kongo Haraza areas owing to ongoing fighting and insecurities (a small number of national staff remain in some areas).

Road Access:  All roads in Habillah, Mornei and Kerenek and their environs were reduced from category D to B during the second week of December. 

South Darfur
Insecurities throughout South Darfur were reported in December; in particular, areas to the South of Nyala bore witness to fighting, killing, abductions, village burnings and livestock looting.

Kalma camp was reopened to UN and NGO staff on 2 December, following a joint assessment by WFP Security and UNDSS. The camp had been closed the previous day as a precautionary response to gunfire in the vicinity. (Source: WFP)

North Darfur
The security situation in North Darfur was reported in December as relatively calm, whilst remaining tense. The Government curfew was relaxed on 4 December to 22:00 to 07:00. The UN curfew changed accordingly on 6 December to 21:00 to 07:00. Insecurities have been reported in the northwest of North Darfur creating operational constraints and security issues for agencies with a presence in the region.  The town of Tawilla has again gone through some heavy fighting and is now only open for humanitarian access during daylight hours.

3. LOGISTICS GENERAL

Light Vehicle Convoy to the Darfurs: The sixth UNJLC-facilitated light vehicle convoy for 2005 reached Fasher on 20 December. The convoy of 25 vehicles, from seven NGOs and one UN agency, had been postponed since October due to heightened insecurities (and subsequent restricted road access) throughout the Darfurs. At the time of convoy departure, UNDSS advised that onward travel to El Geneina and Nyala was not permissible for UN agencies as the access roads for both locations were rated UN NO GO. UNJLC was, therefore, unable to facilitate the convoy beyond Fasher; however, some participating NGOs continued onward managing their own convoy of eight vehicles to Nyala with AU escort which arrived on 25 December.

2004-2006: UNJLC Sudan was officially activated in February 2004, initially to provide logistics planning capacity in South Sudan in preparation for returning IDPs. However, in March 2004, UNJLC's role was expanded to include a larger deployment in Darfur to optimize the logistics capabilities of humanitarian organizations and to set-up and coordinate the non-food item (NFI) Common Pipeline until the 31st December 2005, whilst continuing mandated logistic activities in the South. 

As 2005 draws to a close UNJLC remains the NFI coordinator with no alternate agency committing to take over the role. The 2006 Work Plan includes NFI CP operations to support 1.8 million IDPs in the Darfurs. Should a peace agreement be reached in Darfur by early 2006, a resulting improvement in the security situation may prompt longer-term voluntary and assisted returns in some parts of the region. Of the 1.8 million IDPs, the UN estimates that as many as 300,000 IDPs could return to their homes in over 600 villages during the first of half of 2006, with a potential additional 300,000 IDPs in the latter half of the year (the rest remaining in camps and settlements). Should conditions favourable to the return of IDPs occur, an expanded distribution network for the delivery of humanitarian assistance would be required in the areas of return.  Thus, there not only remains a pressing need to ensure well-coordinated NFI distributions and effective pipeline and logistic management to ensure an adequate response, but there may also be a need to review the service delivery and the logistics arrangements under the current common pipeline set-up to cater for returns and consequential changes in modes of operation. UNJLC has committed to a further six months of NFI CP coordination with a plan to exit the Darfur operations by handing over to another Agency by end of June 2006.

Out of the 1.7 billion USD forecasted to support the UN Work Plan (WP) for 2006, 1.5 billion USD is required for humanitarian activities.  According to the UN, it is foreseen that between 3 and 3.5 million people will continue to require relief assistance in the Darfur region, while hundreds of thousands of other people affected by conflict and disaster, as well as the returning displaced populations will also require humanitarian assistance in South Sudan, Abyei, Blue Nile, South Kordofan, East and North Sudan. UNJLC has both logistic coordination and NFI related activities included in the 2006 WP throughout Sudan. (Source: UN Work Plan 2006)

The overall 2006 objective for UNJLC is to improve logistics coordination and the delivery of humanitarian assistance through: the optimization of logistic resources; facilitation of common logistics services and systems; the provision of logistics information management and dissemination; a logistics planning capacity; and support to NFI operations.

New UNJLC Logistics Officer to El Geneina: Alister Shields is our new logistics officer based in El Geneina. His contact details are as follows: email alister.shields@wfp.org ; phone +249 (0)912391044; and VHF call sign GL3.2.

4. COMMON NFI PIPELINE

2006 NFI CP Funding Forecast: The initial 2006 appeal for the Darfur shelter and NFI operation totalled approximately US$50 million.  However, as an overall reduction of funding was forecast for the Darfurs for 2006 and two of the main 2005 NFI Common Pipeline (CP) donors stated that it was unlikely their '06 budgets could support the initial funding request, it became evident that further analysis of needs and refining of the 2006 targets were required in order to present a revised and hopefully reduced funding appeal for the NFI CP.  The NFI Advisory Panel, therefore, implemented an abridged NFI assessment across the Darfurs in order to provide more sophisticated needs analysis to support the revised proposal . A revised NFI CP appeal will be presented to donors in a unified common appeal document from UNJLC (coordination), CARE (transportation and storage) and UNICEF (procurement).

The Darfur NFI Assessment was conducted in the first week of December 2005 across thirty locations in the Darfurs. Data from 3,324 HH surveyed was collated and analyzed by UNJLC.  A full report will be posted on the UNJLC website in due course. Of particular interest and use for 2006 planning assumptions were the results indicating an average household (HH) size of 6.4 people/HH and NFI items voted by IDPs as most useful/essential (outlined in the table in image 1).

NB. As there is minimal difference between the percentile range for the top five rated items it is important to note that the items should not be ranked in order of preference but rather considered as equally important within the NFI basket.

NFI CP 2006 Planning Assumptions: The revised NFI CP 2006 target caseload for Darfur is 280,000 HH consisting of:

240,000 HH (80% of 1.8 million IDP population)

40,000 HH Emergency Response Stock (10% of 1.8 million IDPs)

6 people per HH

Soap and Mosquito Nets:  The NFI Advisory panel determined that in 2006, effectiveness and coverage of soap and mosquito net distributions would benefit by linking with the WatSan and Health Sector programs respectively.  With effect 1 January, management responsibility for these stocks will transfer from UNJLC to the UNICEF leads for the respective Sectors.  Agencies and NGOs wishing to access these stocks should approach the Health and WatSan sector leads at State level.

Sanitary Material: Whilst sanitary material will not form part of the initial 2006 NFI CP Basket, there are sufficient carry-over stock to continue its distribution on an experimental basis to determine the most effective methods and applications.  The requirement for sanitary material to be part of the NFI CP Basket will be reassessed later in the year.

NFI Carry-over Stocks: 

There remain significant quantities of 2005-procured and donated NFI stocks to be distributed in 2006. The NFI Advisory Panel has approved the UNJLC-proposed carry over stock management and allocation plans. The distribution priority targets for 2006 are: newly displaced IDPs, and IDPs that did not receive any NFIs in 2005. Pipeline breaks for jerry cans and plastic sheeting are anticipated within the first two months of 2006, thus, the NFI Advisory Panel has allocated some of the initial funding to the procurement of these items and OFDA has been approached to advise of the possibility of an in-kind donation of plastic sheeting to be allocated to the NFI CP. 

UNJLC requests information on other agencies' 2006 NFI plans: To assist with the NFI CP coordination in 2006, UNJLC requests information from all agencies intending to procure and distribute (non common pipeline) NFIs in Darfur next year. Helpful information would include: item types; procurement quantities; distribution plans; and planning assumptions. Please send all information to unjlc.khartoum@wfp.org. As UNJLC is included in contingency planning for the East and Northern States and Khartoum, plus NFI plans for the rest of Sudan and the South, any agencies willing to share NFI information, plans and data on any areas in Sudan are encouraged to send it to the above e-mail address. 

5. SURFACE TRANSPORT SERVICE

CARE Funding Crisis:  After a two month funding crisis, CARE received funds through an internal loan mechanism from CARE Atlanta to enable the mass transportation of NFI CP stocks from El Obeid out to the three Darfur State capital hubs and from the State capitals out to distribution points during the period 11-23 December.  CARE then closed for Christmas and with UNJLC conducted a 100% physical count of all Darfur CP NFI stock.     

In October and November, some INGOs facilitated their own transport of NFIs from state capital hubs to final distribution points (CARE offered to assist all agencies on transporter related issues, including price negotiations).  However, smaller INGOs and NGOs had no budget to do so. Agencies   highlighted the importance for CARE to resume full operational capacity from 2 January 2006 in order complete the planned NFI distributions, specifically blankets and sleeping mats during the winter season. 

CARE Surface Transport Common Service Funding constraints continue to block the recommencement of CARE's common cargo surface transport service.  In 2005 the service moved over 6000 MT of non-common pipeline humanitarian cargo to Darfur to assist Agencies and NGOs in program implementation. The 'free to user' service has been included in the 2006 funding appeal; however, until confirmation of pledges are received the service will remain inactive. 

NFI CP and Other Pipeline End of Reporting:   UNICEF and CARE will be providing End of Year reconciled procurement and stock and surface transport reports respectively to UNJLC by 5 January 2006.  UNJLC will collate the reports, reconcile with the UNJLC distribution data for 2005 and produce a 2005 Darfur NFI Common Pipeline report.  

In order to gain a more complete picture of NFI coverage for Darfur in 2005, UNJLC has also appealed to Agencies and NGOs who have procured and distributed NFI from their own pipelines to submit details by 5 January 2006 to  unjlc.khartoum@wfp.org .

6. AIR OPS

UNJLC Interactive Aviation Mapping Tool: UNJLC has released, to a limited group of aviation officers and air service users, a first draft of its interactive, aviation, mapping tool. The tool, hosted on the UNJLC website, depicts air routes and allows users to click on a route to view those airlines that operate along them. Similarly the tool depicts airstrips in Sudan and, once clicked upon, shows a pop up box containing standard infrastructure information on the airstrip. For around 170 airstrips an aerial photograph or diagram of the location is included.

The mapping tool also includes a series of drop down buttons allowing one to search for an airline active in Sudan by scheduled or charter company. For each company a link to its booking contacts is included, as is a link to its fleet details. For operators with scheduled flights, a link to the schedule is also included. After comments are received from the initial distribution list, it is intended to make the tool public on the UNJLC website. It is hoped that this product is the first in a line of interactive web-based mapping tools that UNJLC will release.  Planned releases include a South Sudan interactive road mapping tool detailing de-mining and road repair operations including status of roads and operation specifications.

WFP HAS Air Ops 2005: A total of 32,000 passengers were flown on HAS fixed wing aircraft between January and November 2005 and 20,400 have used the helicopter service over the same period. The 'partial-cost recovery' service is now averaging 3,500 passengers per month, 57% of whom are working for NGOs.

See images:
> Image 2 shows Passengers by organisation
> Image 3 shows Passengers flown from Khartoum
> Image 4 shows Passenger flown by helicopter
> Image 5 gives an over view on services provided bij UNHAS

UNHAS New Years Holiday:  UNHAS is planning a reduction in service over the holiday season. No flights will be scheduled on 1 and 2 January, although plane and crews will remain on operational standby in case of emergencies. (Source: WFP)

7. FUEL PRICES

Diesel Price Trends in Northern Sudan (SD per L). See image 6

El Fasher Diesel Shortages: There is a shortage of diesel fuel being reported in El Fasher. Agencies are experiencing difficulty supporting their current operational fuel requirements owing to purchasing restrictions imposed by the Government of Sudan (GoS). All agencies buying from local stations must have requests authorized by GoS before purchasing diesel fuel. The recently imposed restrictions were implemented as a precautionary measure to ensure GoS has enough diesel to support their own increased activities in North Darfur and, hence, increased fuel requirement.

8. LOGISTICS ASSESSMENTS

Abridged NFI Needs Assessment:  Data collection, input and collation is complete for the Darfur NFI Needs Assessment conducted in the first week of December. Please see Common NFI Pipeline for more details.

9. SOUTH, EAST AND TRANSITIONAL AREAS

RTC Barges and IDP Returns: According to OCHA, the Sudanese River Transport Corporation (RTC) will no longer allow passengers to travel on cargo barges. This action will significantly limit IDP returns to the South as RTC has only four passenger barges capable of carrying up to 1,000 people per month when fully operational. (Source: USAID Situation Report #4, Fiscal Year 2006)
 
Dinka Bor Returnees:  On 4 December, WFP reported that the first caseload of an estimated 12,000 Dinka Bor returnees moving from Mundri County Western Equatoria to Bor County began arriving. The Dinka Bor were displaced from Bor County to Western Equatoria during civil war in Sudan. The first group of returnees crossed the river Nile with thousands of cattle. Provisions to an initial 650 returnees were given at Lologo transit camp, 4 km outside Juba Town. The returnees at Lologo will be transported to Bor by barge. (Source: WFP)

Western Equatoria: On 1 December, a high level delegation including UNDSS and government officials led by the Vice President of the Government of South Sudan visited Yambio to address the tribal conflict between the Zande and Dinka.

Bahr El Jebel: A joint UNDSS, OCHA, WFP and IOM assessment team determined that the Juba-Rokon road is now open for humanitarian operations following an assessment in late November.  (Source: WFP)

Security Situation in Kassala: While the general security situation appears to be calm in Kassala, tensions persist between Ethiopia and Eritrea. According to the Commission of Refugees, daily arrivals of asylum seekers continued to enter Sudan. (Source: WFP)