VZCZCXRO1503
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1236/01 2280902
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 150902Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1621
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001236
DEPT FOR AF/SPG, A/S FRAZER, SE WILLIAMSON
NSC FOR BPITTMAN AND CHUDSON
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL KPKO SOCI AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: UNAMID PLANS TO ELIMINATE CONTAINER BACKLOG
REF: A) KHARTOUM 1223
B) KHARTOUM 1137
C) KHARTOUM 966
1. (SBU) Summary: UNAMID estimates that it requires significantly
enhanced cargo-transport capacity if it is to deploy planned,
additional military and police personnel before the end of the year.
UNAMID's ambitious goals, including additional cargo aircraft and
material handling equipment, appear to be based on wishful thinking.
Reaching them may already be unrealistic within the time required.
End summary.
2. (SBU) To meet its goal of deploying an additional 3,538 military
and police before the end of the year, Chief of Integrated Support
Services Ian Divers told poloff that UNAMID plans to enhance its
container-cargo transport operations, beginning by eliminating a
5,310 Twenty-foot container Equivalent Units (TEU) backlog. (Note:
There are over 3,000 actual containers as previously reported, but a
more useful figure to show the scope of the problem is the 5,310
"container equivalents" calculation. End note.) The initial
priority will be transporting 2,055 Contingent Owned Equipment (COE)
TEUs currently at Port Sudan, El-Obeid and Nyala depots to their
final destinations. Of the 2,055 COE TEUs, 601 are TEU containers.
Another 1062 TEUs represent "wheeled" goods, such as trucks, wheeled
trailers, containers with their own wheels or large items such as
generators. The remaining 393 are palletized bulk-good TEUs. The
following chart summarizes types of COE by location.
CONTINGENT-OWNED CONTAINER LOCATIONS
------------------------------------
TEU WHEELED BULK
PORT SUDAN 180 217 158
EL OBEID 421 805 234
NYALA 40 01 0
TOTAL 601 1062 393
3. (SBU) Of the remaining 3,255 UN Owned Equipment (UNOE) TEUs, the
majority are priority items for ongoing support of UNAMID. Some of
the cargo represents items that, while important, cannot be absorbed
by UNAMID for lack of warehouse space. The chart below summarizes
types of UNOE by location.
UN-OWNED CONTAINER LOCATIONS
-----------------------------
TEU WHEELED BULK
PORT SUDAN 1259 92 58
EL OBEID 1636 189 20
TOTAL 2895 281 78
3. (SBU) UNAMID's current air capacity is 18 TEU flights per week or
three TEU flights a day in a six-day workweek. Part of UNAMID's
plan to eliminate the COE backlog by the end of the year is to
increase air capacity to 66 flights per week. Given that one IL-76
aircraft can accommodate one TEU and the L-100 can accommodate two
TEUs, UNAMID calculates that it needs three additional IL-76s and
one additional L-100 to provide eleven TEU flights a day for six
days. These aircraft need to be in use by September 30, 2008 to
meet the end-of-year goal.
4. (SBU) UNAMID will also use ground transport. Currently UNAMID
delivers a total of 23 TEUs a day using a combination of rail, air
and road. UNAMID plans to deliver 58 TEUs a day by enhancing their
use of these assets. These enhancements require significant new
resource and acquisition initiatives in addition to the planes
mentioned above. These include an additional MI-26 helicopter by
August 2008, increased use of rail transport and movement
contractors, use of anticipated TCC military transport vehicles as
well as UN trucks, increased use of individual small contractors to
move 2,000 individual items in the greater Darfur region, and
expanded use of UNMIS movement contracts to delivery goods to Nyala.
UNAMID plans also assume Friends of UNAMID (FOU) will provide
unspecified airlift of priority COE including Armored Personnel
Carriers (APC), ammunition, medical equipment and supplies, and
KHARTOUM 00001236 002 OF 002
self-sustainment stores.
5. (SBU) According to transport contractors, sufficient Material
Handling Equipment (MHE) is available in Sudan, given proper
planning and funds for rentals. In general, transport contractors,
even those that UNAMID uses, stated that there are no MHE obstacles
regarding loading and off-loading containers at ports, storage sites
or at remote locations. The Port of Sudan has sufficient modern
equipment to off-load containers of any size and weight directly to
trucks for transport to onward rail or air links. Rail heads such as
Nyala have cranes suitable for offloading containers to and from
rail or truck with sufficient personnel to efficiently move cargo to
the onward mode of transport. More remote locations often have MHE
and experienced personnel for rent but require advance planning.
Most transport companies have their own MHE and move their equipment
along with containers. However, despite apparently widely available
MHE, UNAMID says that to meet its year-end objectives it will
require additional MHE equipment such as six 15 ton telescopic
forklifts, three K-Loaders, 12 Pallet Dollies and 12 Baggage
Trailers of unspecified capacities.
6. (SBU) Comment: We will continue to press for additional detail on
the locations of containers and especially a prioritized list of
what could usefully be moved immediately with outside assistance.
This is still one more example of how major impediments to the
accelerated deployment of UNAMID are generated, not by an
obstructionist Khartoum regime, but by lack of capacity and planning
by the UN. It is possible that changes in leadership in New York and
El Fasher may make UNAMID logistics more effective in the coming
months. Additional air cargo flights and convoys will require close
coordination with the Sudanese authorities, especially the military
and intelligence apparatus of the regime. End comment.
FERNANDEZ