4 September 2007
By Captain Aaron Wright
Sqn Ldr Karl Harvey and I (pictured at right with local soldiers) are now at the tail end of our deployment as United Nations Military Observers in Southern Sudan. The past six months have passed extremely quickly and there have been highs and lows, and some unique experiences.
While the NZDF footprint in this mission is one of the smallest of contributing countries, we have discovered, to our delight, that NZDF personnel over here (like elsewhere in the world) are among the best trained and equipped.
NZDF provides two UNMOs and one Staff Officer (SO) to the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). Sqn Ldr Karl Harvey and myself will soon be replaced by Maj Jason Healee and Lt (N) Stefan Hansen. Major Jonathon Fiu continues here as the Staff Officer (and the UNMOs vital link to logistics and welfare) in Khartoum until December.
Sudan is the largest country in Africa and apart from the nine NZDF Officers who have preceded us in this mission, few New Zealanders seem to know much about Sudan, and much of the world’s media is focusing on the situation in Darfur.
UNMIS is now just over two years old. It was put in place to monitor a comprehensive peace agreement between the Government of National Unity (predominantly Arabic Muslim Northern Sudan) and the Government of South Sudan (predominantly Nilotic Christian Southern Sudan). Within UNMIS there are six operational Sectors. While the UNMIS Military Force is based on a Divisional HQ, the Sectors are based on reinforced Battle groups. Sqn Ldr Harvey and I spent all of our mission in Sector III (Malakal), which is the largest of the six Sectors.
Very quickly on arrival in the mission you get an idea of its sheer size. It is large. By way of example, Sector III is the size of France (problem one – how do you provide security to the local populace in this size AOR with one Indian Battle group?). It is a vast place with a wide range of climatic, social, and environmental conditions. Ranging from the decertified Arab capital of Khartoum (where Force HQ is located) to 700km south to Sector III where the ground was predominantly Savannah during the dry season and part of the world’s largest freshwater swamp during the wet season. Note. there are only two seasons, wet and dry.
In the dry temperatures up to 50 degrees C occur. In the wet, it doesn’t just rain, the sky just turns to water and 30 minutes of ‘rain’ is enough to cause enough damage to the roads to cease vehicle movement for days. Fortunately, our Scale of Entitlement (SOE) included a pair of Skellerup Industrial Gumboots. I wore these more than any other type of footwear during the mission.
UNMOs are distributed amongst and our initial deployment was to Nasser at the end of the dry season. Certainly dry, with no wildlife (apart from a lot of buzzards and vultures). The predominant tribe in Nasser is Nuer, which is one of the ancient Nilotic tribes who were used as slaves by the Kingdom of Nubia (way back when).
The blokes in this tribe are tall, real tall. 2 metres is no exceptional for young men. The women wear dresses (most of the time) but everyone lives in mud huts with thatched roofs. It is a very primitive pastoral existence out here and in general the commerce is controlled by Arabs. There are shops (of a kind) but mostly the only foodstuffs available were rice, onions, garlic, ochra and locally slaughtered meat (beef, lamb or goat). Coca Cola was cheaper than water and swimming in the local river invited a multitude of diseases (take your pick from Guinea Worm, River Blindness, Cholera, Typhoid, or Hepatitis).
The composition of was very interesting. Led by a Nigerian Naval Commander, we were a pretty mixed bunch including Germans, Danes, Romanians, Sri Lankans, Chinese, Bolivians, Peruvians, Namibians, Ugandans, Malawi, Guinea, India and of course a couple of Kiwis a long way from home. Of course there was much interaction and discussion of home countries and the features and benefits of each countries pay scales and tax laws. Once the wet season truly set in, there was a lot of opportunity to practise vehicle recovery. The Romanians were quickly established in pole position as the nation who got stuck in the mud most often and in the worst circumstances.
From Nasser we conducted patrols to other villages, predominantly those of operational importance on the Ethiopian border to the East. This is a fairly lawless area and at the time of our departure is still highly unstable where tribal fighting and cattle raiding (usually involving the abduction of children) is rife. Cholera is a major risk for the local population and guns are cheaper than medicine. The visit to the hospital of one such town was less than cheerful with no beds, patients lying under trees seeking escape from the sun, IV bags hanging in the branches above them, a lack of trained medical staff and no hope for more medicine or trained personnel in the immediate future.
It is saddening to see such things and frustrating not to be able to assist. On a more positive note, UNICEF distributed 4,000 school kits the day after the hospital visit, included were two exercise books, two biros, a ruler and a small packet of coloured pencils. This was a big event at the primary school and a huge turn out was present. Unfortunately this was tainted by the sight of callow youths standing in the shadows, presumably to relieve the youngsters of their new bounty on their way home.
I moved from Nasser the Sector HQ in Malakal. This had been the scene for some violent confrontations in the latter part of 2006 and was to many extents still a garrison town for both sides of the civil war. Needless to say tensions occasionally ran high. In Malakal I filled the roles of Liaison Officer to Nasser and for a short period of time LO to other TS as well. My final job was as the Acting Sector G2. I would like to say that my time is Malakal passed smoothly, but there were a couple of moments where things went pear shaped. I was fortunate enough to live in a house with 11 other UNMOs who had far more experience than I did in this sort of environment and I will be ever grateful for their humour, patience and wonderful meals. Meanwhile Sqn Ldr Harvey remained at Nasser (while I was living the high life) fulfilling the positions of Acting TS Leader, G3 (Operations Officer) and Patrol Leader to some interesting places that were pretty remote (some of these folks had never seen a helicopter before).
One of the great benefits of serving in Sudan is the ability to travel within Africa and see some of the magical scenery and wildlife. Despite what others may have observed or been told, I have not see any wildlife here in Sudan apart from scorpions, crocodiles and the odd snake. I have however been privileged to have been on Safari in Kenya and Tanzania, dived off the Spice Isles of Pemba and Zanzibar and visited Egypt. Nothing of course will compare with returning to New Zealand.
In summary, this is a very difficult and complex country, fractured many times and not easy to describe as simply a fight between North and South or Muslim and Christian. There are many underlying currents and it will take a concerted, sustained effort by the International community to rectify, something I wonder if our western lifestyle has the stomach for. I pray for the lives of the millions of innocents here that we do.
See our Sudan Image Gallery