WFP Logistics - Somalia

Overview
WFP Logistics faces some of its biggest challenges in Somalia. The country infrastructure is damaged, suitable warehouses are scarce, only two ports are adequate to handle large cargo vessels (Mogadishu and Berbera) and lack of road maintenance makes even the shortest routes extremely difficult. Some 90 percent of deliveries are made by sea, with Mombasa as primary load port and Djibouti, Dar es Salaam and South Africa as secondary ports.

Activities
Port Operations
Mogadishu is the preferred port of discharge. However Merka, the seasonal beach port, is heavily utilized and the country office has the option to use El Ma'an beach port in case Mogadishu is blocked due to insecurity, and the Berbera and Bossaso ports for northern Somalia.

Sea transport is preferred to overland routes through Kenya because of Kenya's unreliable road networks and occasional border closures due to insecurity that disrupt deliveries. The Country Office anticipates this by pre-positioning at extended delivery points (EDPs) inside Somalia when possible, and by having contracts in place to supply areas using alternate routes from the Somali ports.

However, sea transport threats from piracy reached an all time high in 2008. Since November 2007, the Country Office has relied on naval escorts provided by a number of national governments, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union. No escorted WFP ship has been hijacked since the start of this initiative.

Storage
Direct deliveries are made to approximately 2,500 final distribution points (FDPs) and through 16 EDPs established within Somalia, each equipped with logistics staff and commodity tracking systems. The Somalia country office has two EDPs in a box, should augmented capacity be required in short time.

Road Transport
Commercial Somali transport companies are employed for ocean, overland and inland transport through established WFP contracting procedures.

Hundreds of security checkpoints remain a challenge to overland transport inside Somalia. New security arrangements for convoys are being devised at the local level to ensure neutral security from point of loading to distribution point.

Aviation
The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) continues to be critical for the humanitarian community, providing and maintaining a reliable air-bridge for 1,350 passengers and transporting 1.2 metric tons a month to and across Somalia, accessing 32 locations as needed according to security condition on the ground. UNHAS current fleet comprises two Caravans, two BH-200s and one Dash-8, and a UNDSS dedicated aircraft for security assessment and security/medical evacuations. It also can call forward a jet Dornier-328 as a fast feeder aircraft from Nairobi to Hargeiza.

Other WFP Logistics Services
The Ethiopia Country Office has requested for the Somalia Country Office to assist in receiving, handling and transporting up to 20,000 metric tons per month through the Berbera port in Somaliland to Ethiopia.

Logistics Cluster
The Somalia Logistics Cluster, headed by the WFP Country Office, has been active since June 2006 addressing logistics gaps and providing solutions. To address gaps related to cargo movement, mainly due to increased security volatility and high operational costs, and to utilize economies of scale, WFP offers its logistics capacity to move and track non-food items (NFIs) at full-cost recovery to other organizations operating in Somalia. To date, it transports some 500 commodity containers a year for 13 UN organizations and IGOs, and it has established EDPs to cater to other agencies' cargo.