Since late August, Bangladesh has experienced a large influx of refugees from Myanmar whose scale has resulted in a critical humanitarian emergency. As of 2 October, 509,000 Rohingya have crossed the border to Cox’s Bazar and are now reliant on humanitarian assistance for life-saving needs. The massive increase in people in the area puts under severe strain basic services that were available prior to the influx and the capacity of the government to respond to immediate needs.
WFP, together with the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR), is co-chairing the Logistics Sector in Bangladesh, and as lead agency of the Logistics Cluster, is coordinating the Logistics Sector in Cox’s Bazar to support the logistics needs of the entire humanitarian community.
The Logistics Sector aims at improving coordination within the humanitarian community, to ensure access to critical logistics services and support an uninterrupted supply chain and an effective response. Low storage space availability in Cox’s Bazar is the top need identified by partners. The Logistics Sector is setting up a Logistics Hub in a space allocated by the Government in Ukhiya Degree College, where 13 MSUs will permit the set-up of 2,184 m2 of storage space available on a free-to-user basis to the entire humanitarian community.
On 29 September, the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley, visited the Logistics Hub during his stay in Bangladesh. This was a great opportunity for the Logistics Sector to outline the planned activities for the upcoming months, to support all organisations and address the identified logistical gaps.