CONTENTS

1. Highlights

2. Security

3. Common NFI Pipeline

4. Surface Transport

5. Air Operations

6. Fuel Prices

7. Logistics Assessment

8. Miscellaneous

1. Highlights

USAID/OFDA confirmed that they shall be making a contribution of US$5.5 million to WFP from their existing Macro-Grant, for which Darfur operations have been prioritized. US$5M has been pledged to UNHAS and US$500,000 to UNJLC. The grant will assist current UNJLC operations to continue beyond September 2005. The US $5M to UNHAS will enable the resumption of a dedicated NFI flight service and assist the continuation of the UNHAS passenger and helicopter services. It is anticipated that the funds will cover the resumption of NFI flights for about a two month period.

2. SECURITY / ACCESS

CARE is receiving reports of truck drivers unwilling to leave Al Deain for fear of being robbed en route to Nyala. UNDSS has been informed and CARE/UNJLC is investigating these reports further. A convoy of 170 trucks arrived in Nyala in late July indicating the potential of a bottleneck occurring owing to security concerns at El Deain. (Source: CARE)

Two days of torrential rains, beginning 3 August, flooded El Fasher city and resulted in 694 houses being completely destroyed and several government institutions being damaged. A total of 132 mm of rain, the most rain it has had since 1917, also caused extensive damage to roads within El Fasher. (Newsflash: More rains on 12 August resulted in floods in Abou Schock Camp affecting 778 HH. An Emergency Committee consisting of the Minister of Social Affairs, HAC, the camp management and the Elders of the affected IDPs are conducting emergency assessments.)

Anticipated delays have been experienced at seasonal wadis on both the southern and northern access routes to El Geneina. Transit times average between 16 and 40 days. Delays of up to ten days have been reported at Wadi Azoom on the southern route, with wadis in vicinity of Birkat Seira causing bottlenecks on the northern route.

The tragic death of Vice-President Dr Garang, reported on 31 July, did not result in significant incidents or a cease in operations in the Darfurs as it did in some other parts of the country.  Agency operations in Khartoum were suspended for several days and in some cases up to a week to ensure staff safety.

Following the death of Dr. John Garang, security measures were raised to Phase II for Khartoum and Phase III for Juba, Bahr El Jebel and Malakal, Upper Nile. (Source: WFP)

3. COMMON NFI PIPELINE

Constraints in the supply chain have resulted in arrival delays of sanitary material, women's clothing and plastic mats, thus they missed the main rainy season pre-positioning and July distributions.


West Darfur: Delays in distributions in and around El Geneina town were experienced as a result of security incidents during IDP registrations.

South Darfur: A few locations in South Darfur were isolated by rains prior to completion of NFI rainy season distributions.

North Darfur: Two days of torrential rains, beginning 3 August, flooded El Fasher city and resulted in 694 houses being completely destroyed and several government institutions being damaged. A total of 132 mm of rain, the most rain to fall in a day since 1917, also caused extensive damage to roads within El Fasher.

UNJLC in accordance with OCHA supplied emergency NFIs from the common pipeline for immediate distribution by implementing partner the Sudanese Red Crescent. Common pipeline items included: 10,440 soap bars equating to 1.5 kgs/HH; 700 pieces of plastic sheets; 1,400 blankets; 1400 plastic mats; and 1,388 buckets.

Blankets: Small quantities of current stocks are being dispatched with the balance of the rainy season distributions, however, the majority will be required for the dry season in the later part of the year for which distribution planning has begun.

Plastic: More plastic sheeting is required during the rainy season in El Geneina, however, supply constraints and delivery delays owing to high water levels of wadis between Fasher and Geneina are impacting availability of stock.

Plastic Sleeping Mats: A total of 232,475 plastic mats have arrived in El Obeid, of which all but 127,375 pieces have been dispatched, some of which are still in transit to the three Darfurs.

Soap:    Significant stocks of soap are available for the Darfurs; however, constraints in distribution are causing major shortfalls in coverage. A large part of this "distribution" gap is due to the small number of NGOs performing regular programmes using common pipeline soap. UNJLC is advocating for a more systematic approach to NFI distribution, in particular soap distributions.

Mosquito Nets: There remains a small stock balance of Mosquito nets which are currently being delivered.  The shortage of mosquito nets is, in part, due to the global shortage of WHO standard long life treated nets. Current procurement lead-time for these is upwards of seven months. UNICEF and UNJLC have worked with alternate sources of different types of nets for immediate purchase and distribution of 50,000 pieces which shall help to reduce the coverage gap before the end of the rainy-season.

Taking into account distribution data to date and the WHO malarial prevalence table, the proposed distribution of the locally procured 50,000 mosquito nets is divided between South Darfur with a suggested allocation of 25,000 pieces, West Darfur with the 15,000 pieces and North Darfur with the remaining 10,000 pieces.

Jerry cans:  99,400 Jerry cans have been procured from two factories in Nyala. Their delivery schedule has yet to be advised for release into the common pipeline.

Buckets: A balance of buckets is to be dispatched from the factory in Nyala; however, the exact delivery schedule is yet to be advised by UNICEF.

Women's Clothing: The first tranche of 2005-procured women's wraps have arrived into the common pipeline.  20,100 of the total 70,200 pieces have been dispatched to the Darfurs with more to be dispatched this week from El Obeid.

4. SURFACE TRANSPORT

Seasonal Delays: As anticipated, surface transport transit times to the Darfurs have increased owing to poor access during the rainy season, specifically difficulties crossing seasonal wadis have been experienced enroute to El Geneina.

Transit times to El Geneina are being reported to be between sixteen and forty days. One driver reported a delay of 10 days at a Wadi Azoom which by the end of July was impassable.

Warehousing: CARE was temporarily without warehousing capacity in Khartoum during the month of July. A warehouse has been secured in Bahari, the same compound location of the previous CARE warehouse; however, at 700 sq metres it has only half the previous warehouse's capacity.

5. AIR OPERATIONS

Whilst the majority of agency operations in Khartoum ceased from 4-8 August, during the civil unrest following the tragic death of Vice President Garang, UNHAS continued essential passenger flights.

A grant of US $5M to UNHAS has been pledged by OFDA/USAID. This will enable the resumption of a dedicated NFI flight service and assist the continuation of the UNHAS passenger and helicopter services. It is anticipated that the funds will cover the resumption of NFI flights for about a two month period.
 (See Miscellaneous)

Passenger Services: The UNHAS passenger service capacity suffered during the month of July. Several planes in the UNHAS passenger fleet experienced technical problems. The ATR, which primarily services Nyala and El Fasher, was confirmed in June by mechanics as not repairable and the two Beachcraft 1900 replacement aircrafts required lead time to be sourced, imported and undergo civil aviation inspections and clearance. The first of these Beachcraft 1990s arrived and was operational by late July with the second anticipated to arrive in country in the first week of August.

Delays in the transportation of Jet A1 fuel from Port Sudan continued to increase shortages and hike fuel prices affecting flights, primarily cargo, however, also taking a toll on the passenger service. (See Logistic Assessments)

UNHAS continues to consider cost recovery options for the passenger service owing to severe funding shortages, both nominal contributions or full cost recovery are being considered. It is worth noting that should ticket charges be introduced it is likely that overall passenger service usage would decrease. This reduction in usage would necessitate an introduction of restricted services, as the continuation of full services would no longer be economically viable. Downscaling services including limited scheduling and a contracted fleet would significantly impact upon the humanitarian community. (Source: UNHAS)

NFI Air Options: Owing to extremely limited funding available for the possible resumption of NFI flights, a recommencement of services will require stricter prioritization of cargo permitted to be moved by air. The NFI User Group shall review commodity prioritization and as previously stated light vehicle transportation shall no longer be facilitated using the NFI air service.

UNHAS has provided UNHCR with a Caravan aircraft on a full cost recovery basis for 80 hours per month. It may be possible to negotiate NFI cargo flights to the Darfurs utilizing spare hours that UNHCR does not consume.

6. FUEL PRICES

*All prices in Sudanese Dinar (unless otherwise stated) per Imperial Gallon / Litre.

NB: 1 IG = 4.546Litres. One US $ is approximately SDD250.Fuel is not sold by the litre in El Fasher.

Fuel shortages continue to impact upon operations across the board both with increased prices and decreasing availability. The air sector in particular is suffering as a consequence of increasing fuel shortages and transport capacity. (See Logistics Assessments)

7. LOGISTICS ASSESSMENTS

Fuel Assessment Sudan: An independent report submitted to UNJLC outlines recent events and issues surrounding the current fuel shortages in Sudan with recommendations to the humanitarian community. The full report can be found on the UNJLC website under the Sudan link. A summary of the report follows:

The current shortages of fuel are a combination of a series of events. The Khartoum refinery produced two bad batches of fuel product last month, the importation of fuels has been too little too late due Government of Sudan (GoS) cash flow problems, substantial ongoing increase in demand from the rising tempo of AU / UNMISS deployment, coupled to essential equipment held up in Port Sudan, poor security in Darfur, and an inadequate number of tankers to meet the local, UN and Humanitarian Community requirements.

Several measures have been taken to improve fuel supply including: the decision to reverse the flow of the 6" pipeline that currently exports MOGAS from Khartoum to Port Sudan so that it can be used to import fuels and help relieve the pressure on the tanker transporters; and the temporary lifting of axle restriction for tankers approved by the Government of Sudan (GOS) to facilitate an increase in the number of tankers able to transport fuel.

Despite these measures the immediate future will be frustratingly disruptive with shortages anticipated to continue in a number of places, especially the air sector. Therefore, in the short term it is strongly recommended that each location look at its emergency plans and ensure that they hold sufficient drums of fuel to cover evacuation plans.

In the long term more co-operations between agencies and the humanitarian community would be timely and productive.  The introduction of a voucher system with the possible assistance of the larger agencies to obtain a contract price and prepaid voucher, to obtain fuel placed in the correct location and at a price lower than that of the commercial market, would be of mutual benefit to all.  

8. MISCELLANEOUS

USAID/OFDA confirmed that they shall be making a contribution of US$5.5 million to WFP from their existing Macro-Grant, for which Darfur operations have been prioritized. US$5M has been pledged to UNHAS and US$500,000 to UNJLC. The grant will assist current UNJLC operations to continue beyond September 2005. The US $5M to UNHAS will enable the resumption of a dedicated NFI flight service and assist the continuation of the UNHAS passenger and helicopter services. It is anticipated that the funds will cover the resumption of NFI flights for about a two month period.

In the absence of NFI air operations currently and the decision not to fly light vehicles in the event NFI air operations resume, combined with the implacability of hauling vehicles to the Darfurs on the CARE-operated surface transport trucks because of the high insurance costs, UNJLC, in co-operation with OCHA and with the assistance of UNDSS, WFP and the AU, facilitated the organization of a convoy of vehicles to the Darfurs. The convoy departed on 9 August, with a total of 28 vehicles from seven NGOs. UNDSS supplied a convoy leader and WFP has arranged secure overnight parking at three locations en route.

UNDSS has stated that owing to limited capacity they may not be able to facilitate a convoy leader on a regular basis. UNJLC will explore alternate sources for future convoy/security leaders. In the meantime, agencies are reminded that there is regular and heavy logistical traffic from El Obeid to the Darfurs, often in truck convoys. If agencies have vehicles to move to the Darfurs and are concerned about security, they may wish to locate the vehicles in El Obeid and accompany one of these convoys.



ABOUT UNJLC
UNJLC is an inter-agency facility reporting during an emergency to the Humanitarian Coordinator 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 is responsible for the administrative and financial management of the Centre. UNJLC is funded from voluntary contributions channeled through WFP. More information on UNJLC in general and on the South Asia operation can be viewed on the UNJLC website (www.unjlc.org)