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Nigeria: Operation Overview, June 2017

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Nigeria
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Logistics Cluster
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Background

The Logistics Sector Nigeria provides support to the Government-led coordination of the humanitarian logistics response in northeastern Nigeria. It supports the Humanitarian Community by maintaining an open forum for discussing and addressing logistics issues as they arise; by facilitating access to logistics services and providing guidance and advice; and by promoting joint planning.

Increased humanitarian activity is placing a growing demand on the logistics capacity in the affected states in north-eastern Nigeria: Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, and Yobe States. The security situation taken together with the scale of the need is putting more and more strain on the logistics resources available. Several key operational areas are currently only accessible by air and some areas are completely inaccessible due to insecurity. Prepositioning of life-saving relief items is crucial now ahead of the rainy season, during which several key roads are likely to be cut off.

May Highlights

  • In June, the Logistics Sector facilitated the storage of 5050 m3 (1850 mt) of humanitarian relief items at the Inter-Agency Logistics Base in Maiduguri on behalf of eight organisations, and the consolidation of 9 m³ (2 mt) of air cargo on behalf of four organisations. The facility, which is managed by Première Urgence Internationale (PUI) in Maiduguri, includes a timber shed and a dedicated temperature-controlled storage area (150 m2). A kitting area and a conference room are under construction and will be made available in the coming weeks. The contract for the facility management has been extended until end of 2017 and a further extension will be discussed in October.
  • The construction teams have started preparations of storage sites for the rainy season (concrete slabs and drainage). One of the teams was deployed to the future common storage site in Monguno, which will be managed by Solidarités on behalf of the Logistics Sector and is expected to become operational in July. The site preparation works in Rann and Ngala will take place in July, and will include construction of helicopter landing pads to enable continued UNHAS operations during the rains. However, the difficulty of access to Rann could delay works.
  • The two MSUs, which were dispatched to Rann, will be given on loan to partners (two MSUs 10x24m to OXFAM and UNICEF) and the 24 MSUs (10x32m) allocated for common storage in Ngala will be managed by WFP on behalf of the Logistics Sector. The Logistics Sector is still in discussions with INTERSOS about the establishment of the common site in Banki (10x24m), and is likely to loan one MSU (10x32) to UNICEF for its own use in Banki. ACTED and NRC have expressed interest in managing common storage sites, with Damasak and Dikwa potential locations under consideration.
  • The volatile security situation, ongoing military operations, and limited escort availability make it difficult to properly organize humanitarian cargo movements, therefore delaying the delivery of life-saving assistance, and in some cases, preventing access to people in need. Issues related to humanitarian access, cargo movement, and military escorts are being discussed at the weekly Civil-Military Forum.
  • The Logistics Sector supports the Civil/Military coordination (CMCoord) mechanisms established by OCHA. This includes the consolidation of cargo movement requests and escort requirements on behalf of the Humanitarian Community. In June, the Logistics Sector facilitated close to 900 truck movement requests carrying relief cargo, of which 678 with military escort, on behalf of 21 organisations. A snapshot of the Coordination of the Humanitarian Cargo Movement has been published. It describes the coordination background and objectives, as well as the outcomes to date (including a map of the cargo movement destinations).
  • In May, the Nigerian Military suspended the possibility of submitting cargo movement notification forms on Monday (in addition to Thursday) and the Logistics Sector continues its efforts to reinstate the submission date. As part of these efforts, the Logistics Sector has developed a set of key messages on the subject that can be used in discussions with the military, donors and government civilian authorities. The key messages document was circulated for comments and endorsement by the partners.