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East Africa: Crisis Ripple Effects Felt Across the Region
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
6 February 2008
Posted to the web 6 February 2008
Nairobi
Unrest in Kenya threatens humanitarian and commercial operations throughout the Great Lakes region, potentially affecting more than 100 million lives, according to analysts.
Southern Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have experienced shortages of fuel and other essential supplies because of insecurity along the Kenyan section of the Northern Corridor, one of the most important transport routes in Africa. It runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa westwards through Uganda and the Great Lakes.
Among aid agencies, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) faces the greatest challenge, feeding seven million vulnerable people in East Africa and the Great Lakes.
"WFP is extremely concerned because Kenya is not just supplying Kenya. It's supplying much of east and central Africa, both with commercial trade and food and also humanitarian assistance. It's a very worrying problem," WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon told IRIN.
"We need to feed seven million people every month and that includes 250,000 [internally displaced by the post-election violence] in Kenya on top of our normal caseload. We need a continuous supply line.
We need to feed seven million people every month and that includes 250,000 IDPs in Kenya since the election
"If the roads are closed for a week or two weeks, then we get into real problems. We might have to start postponing food distributions. You could see people [going] hungry if the road network is knocked out for weeks," he said.
Covering more than 1,400km, the Northern Corridor is the largest in Africa, used by 4,000 light vehicles, 1,250 trucks and 400 buses per day. It carries more than 10 million tonnes of cargo a year.
WFP moves more than 1,000 tonnes of food out of Mombasa every day of the year, according to Alistair Cook, the logistics co-ordinator. "WFP has to keep the corridor in operation or else we will lose hundreds of thousands of refugees through starvation," he said.
Alternative supply routes
Cook had been investigating alternative routes, trucking supplies from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. From here, goods travel 980km by rail to Isaka, near Mwanza in northwestern Tanzania, where WFP has storage facilities and milling plants.
Supplies can then be taken north by boat across Lake Victoria to Port Bell in Uganda, from where they can be trucked to Southern Sudan and the DRC. Alternatively, they can be driven west from Isaka to the Rwandan border crossing of Rusomo. From here, there is road access to Burundi and the DRC.
"There are measures being put in place to strengthen components of this alternative corridor. It's complicated and takes a great deal of co-ordination but it's workable," Cook said.
Because rail transport is cheaper than road, Cook said these alternative routes would not be much more expensive for WFP.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has redirected some of its supplies through Uganda, rather than waiting for security to improve in Kenya. It is importing steel from Dubai for a bridge it is constructing at Enyau in Ajumani District in northern Uganda. The bridge will help Sudanese refugees to return home.
Using the Tanzanian route "will roughly cost 20 percent more because of extra fuel and logistics", according to Roberta Russo, spokeswoman for UNHCR Uganda.
UNHCR's Southern Sudan programme has been heavily reliant on Kenya for supplies and as a transport route. There are 20 trucks used for repatriation waiting for the all-clear to be driven from Nairobi to Uganda.
"If the situation doesn't improve, Southern Sudan will start to be affected because they won't be able to make purchases for reintegration projects," said Millicent Mutuli, UNHCR's regional spokeswoman. UNHCR is already looking for Ugandan suppliers to replace the Kenyan ones.
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Post-election violence in Kenya has pitted rival groups against each other
However, many aid agencies and businesses do not have the financial or logistical muscle to switch routes and suppliers. After a visit from Uganda's First Deputy Prime Minister Eriya Kategaya, the Kenyan government agreed on 31 January to provide military escorts to trucks travelling from the capital, Nairobi, westwards to the Ugandan border. The first convoy was a success, with 400 trucks arriving safely on 1 February under the protection of Kenyan army helicopters, jeeps and lorries.
However, for WFP the convoy system may be insufficient to meet their needs. WFP uses convoys of up to 800 trucks. "It's a question of capacity. We are concerned the convey system may affect the amount of food we can move," said Smerdon.
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God bless kenya.kenyas problem is ignorance so the constitition should be made so that all tribes at some point should rule the nation so we should do away with the pressdetial vote forever.so we should have a ceremoniol presdent to be rotated among the tribes and a prime minister elected by the paliament.
If this kind of a crisis happens in america this year will they do to their country what ODM as done to Kenya? I doubt it. Demecrats did not do it in 2002. I dont think whoever loses in this years poll can do it either.
ruling or not ruling does not put ugali on the table and these fools saying no raila no peace can stop fooling themselves. work and forget these politicians you came alone in this world and so shall you leave. try and better yourself as nobody remembers kibera when they go home to karen or muthiga, get with the programme.
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