A cargo container carrying trucks, satellite vans and prefabricated building materials left Port au Prince in early July en route to Mali to support the new mission there known as MINUSMA, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.
Over 100 containers left filled with light vehicles like Nissan patrols, 19 satellite vans, special vans and heavy trucks. Nearly 300 sea containers were filled with engineering material like prefabricated buildings.
The whole transfer process began in May. MINUSMA already received a startup kit from the UN logistics center in Brindisi, Italy and the UN missions in Ivory Coast, DR Congo and Liberia.
MINUSMA, which officially started on 1 July 2013, is also receiving equipment from several other sections of MINUSTAH, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
Klaus Zillner is a Movement Control Officer with MINUSTAH:
“Mostly from mission support, from integrated support service, we have of course from our side movement control, joint movement coordination center (CJMCC), we have joint logistics operation (JLOC), and then the asset managers. We have engineering, supply, medical, CITS, transport, they all have equipment to ship to Mali, so five sections are involved, that are the owners of the cargo, and 2 sections doing the coordination – with us taking the lead”.
BBC Ohio, an American company that was awarded the bidding, is shipping the cargo of a total value of almost $13 Million from Port-au-Prince to Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
The loading of the 441 containers, which took about three days, required a joint effort from all actors involved in the process.
Guy-Claude Jean-Baptiste, a Logistics Assistant with MINUSTAH, explains what his role was.
“My specific mission was to make sure that all the sections that were sending things for MINUSMA had what they needed to make it happen in the deadline that was given. It was challenging but also interesting. It was a very good experience. I hope that the lessons learned from this movement will be shared with the other missions when they will be starting or packing”.
The vessel left Haiti in early August.
It is scheduled to travel to Dakar, where it will then travel by road or train to reach Bamako.
At that point, it will be distributed within Mali at the beginning of September.
Gerry Adams, United Nations.
Duration: 2’54″