Copyright: WFP/Boris Heger

Ethiopia has had six major droughts in just two decades, leaving many families in dire need of humanitarian intervention.  WFP has maintained a continuous presence in Ethiopia and has been responding to drought, floods with relief distributions on a large scale.  

Team
WFO Logistcs has a total of 46 staff out of which 28 are in the main office and 18 in the sub offices.

Activities
Port Operations
Djibouti
Most of Ethiopia’s imports are via Djibouti. Road and railway border crossings with are through Galafi and Dewele for eastern regions of Ethiopia. Under agreement between the Governments of Djibouti and Ethiopia, an Ethiopian Customs office is established at Djibouti port. Following a specific request for each consignment, relief cargo can be pre-cleared at Addis Ababa, with documents sent to the Ethiopia Customs office at Djibouti Port for release of cargo.
Once Ethiopian Customs inspects the cargo at the Djibouti port, trucks can deliver direct to destinations without much further additional processing. Both Galafi and Dewele operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Storage
Food in country is stored byDisaster Management & Food Security Sector (DMFSS) and WFP.  There are currently eight operational hubs located at the following locations:
Addis Ababa, Nazareth, Dire Dawa, Kombolcha, Mekele, Degehabur, Gode and Kebredehar. A new hub is currently being setup in Jijiga. In addition, the government body EFSRA (Emergency Food Storage Reserve Agency) has stores around the country from which WFP can borrow food if delays are expected and can repay at a later stage.

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Road Transport
The distance from Berbera to Dire Dawa is 472 km (480 Km to Shinille EFSRA) and to Jijiga 316 km.The 160 Km Berbera - Hargeisa road is paved.

From Hargeisa to the Ethiopian border at Togwajale the first 71 KM stretch to Kalabaid is tarmac and in good condition, while the last 20-Km to the border is a gravel road in rehabilitated in Oct 2003 and in good condition.

Based on previous food shipments the turnaround time for a truck Berbera - Dire Dawa - Berbera is approximately four days if there are no delays at the receiving warehouses.

For transport from Berbera to Ethiopia, only Somaliland trucks can be used. Ethiopian Authorities do not allow Somaliland registered trucks to operate beyond Dire Dawa.

Rail
Most of the rail track between Djibouti and Dire Dawa need rehabilitation and replacement. Almost all of the bridges between Djibouti and Dire Dawa need strengthening. WFP uses the railway (Chemin de Fer Djibouti-Ethiopien company) for about half of its imports from Djibouti. Lack of warehouse storage close to the Dire Dawa station requires the use of trucks to transfer stock from the train to warehouses nearby.

Aviation
This operation was launched by WFP to meet the requirement for the passenger movement of the humanitarian community in the Somali region of Ethiopia to support the monitoring of WFP and other humanitarian programmes, since there are no commercial flights to all the key coordination and monitoring centres in this region.

The operation will continue contributing to the recommended enhancement of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia by providing air support for both passengers and cargo between Addis Ababa and various zones in Somali Region of Ethiopia (Degehabur, Fik, Gode, Korahe and Warder) where there is poor road and airport/airstrip infrastructure, no commercial air transport alternatives distribution points are far a part and accessibility is hamperd by insecuruty.ircial air transport alternatives, distribution points are far apart and accessibility is hampered by insecurity

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