Cargo fears in Mombasa over Sudan crisis

By BENARD SANGA

NAIROBI, KENYA: A cargo crisis is building up in Mombasa, East Africa’s most strategic port, following the crisis in South Sudan.

Importers are counting the cost after the conflict in Africa’s youngest country saw their goods and the trucks hired to transport them marooned at the port.

The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) on Monday evacuated more Kenyans from Juba, but the uptake of South Sudan-bound cargo from the Mombasa port slowed down due to the armed strife in Africa’s newest state.

Traditionally, the month of December is the peak season for the port, which also serves Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pileup of cargo now poses a challenge to operators leading to massive congestion.

KPA had already put forward elaborate measures to avert congestion, but players in the shipping logistics chain fear that knock-on effects if the South Sudan conflict is prolonged may lead to choke-ups at the port.

Biggest user

Landlocked South Sudan is the port’s second biggest user after Uganda, and last year accounted for 11.6 per cent of the total transit traffic from the port, a figure that has since increased. Most of the imports are construction materials, vehicles, food and military hardware.

On Monday last week, fierce fight between forces allied to Riek Machar, the former vice president of South Sudan and government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir erupted.

The fighting has affected many Kenyan owned business activities in Juba and shipping experts say it is bound to have an effect on the operations of the port of Mombasa.

“We expect the conflict to have an impact on the operation of the port as South Sudan cargo will not move from Mombasa. But after the conflict, we also expect the volume of cargo heading to Southern Sudan to drop because shippers would not have ordered for their cargo,” said KPA’s Operations General Manager Captain Twalib Khamis yesterday.

He said the management was monitoring the situation adding; “If the conflict enters the second week it is highly likely that the CFS operators (container freight stations) handling the South Sudan-bound cargo will be overwhelmed.”

Yesterday KPA said it was conducting an assessment to determine the impact of the conflict on the port and promised to issue a comprehensive statement later.

Kenya Transporters Association (KTA) yesterday said transporters who move the cargo by road had already incurred huge losses with over 1000 trucks that were heading to South Sudan held up at the Ugandan side of the Nimule border post.

“On average, a transporter charges $500 (Sh42,925) to transport cargo from Mombasa to South Sudan. For the last week our trucks have been stuck at the border. They would be on their second trip were it not for the fight,” said KTA Executive Officer Wellington Kiverenge.

KPA has already issued a notice indicating that the port would operate on a 24-hour basis during the festive season, and set up a Rapid Response Port Advisory Committee comprising representatives from all port stakeholders to oversee the seamless operations at the facility.

“The special Rapid Response Port Advisory Committee would formulate and implement strategies to forestall and resolve congestion and operational hitches that might occur during the peak period,” said a statement from KPA Managing Director Mr Gichiri Ndua.

In a notice posted on KPA’s website, Ndua said adequate arrangements had been put in place to ensure that all port services were available during the holiday and urged partners to clear their cargo to avoid creating congestion and pile up after the holidays.

He warned that importers who failed to clear their cargo within the stipulated free period would have to pay port and storage charges. Import agents said that despite the measures put up by KPA, the port was bound to experience cargo pileups as movement of transit goods continue to be slowed down by the fighting in the South Sudan.

“Definitely, the port’s operation at one time would be affected though we have heard reports that Uganda has agreed with transporters to drop South Sudan-bound cargo at their inland depot,” said Philip Tete, the operations manager at Compact Container Freight Station, which was recently given exclusive rights to handle all cargo heading to South Sudan.