Yei 05-March-2012

It was time for another mission, this time things would be a little different. Instead of flying I would be driving. In the Republic of South Sudan the UN has some pretty stringent rules about safety. Driving anywhere outside of towns has a degree of danger. There are still a lot of landmines around both anti-vehicle and anti-personnel; there are bandits and armed rebel groups; and there are poor drivers, and lastly but the most likely to cause a problem are the poor road conditions. So we have to move about in a convoy and radio in at check points along the way.

My mission was to drive to Yei to check on the co-location there; along for the ride and to do their own work was a British Police officer Peter, two Australian Police officers Daina and Tina, and a Canadian Civilian Dan.

I was the patrol leader which meant I got to drive in the front and radio in, although my co-pilot Daina ended up working the radio when she wasn’t hanging on due to the rough ride. It took 4 hours to drive Yei.

 Our UN convoy, the road is all dirt to Yei which is about 147 KM from Juba.

On our way to Yei we passed a dump or maybe the road goes through the dump, which would be a better way to describe it. The whole place was burning with people sifting through the garbage for anything useful. Along the outskirts there are dwellings. It was sad to see children rummaging through the garbage. Unlike dumps in Canada not much of anything is thrown out in South Sudan.

The Bike in the background isn’t garbage some guy rode it there and was sifting through the garbage nearby; he put it on the hill to keep it safe.

The County Support Base at Yei, UNPOL are placed at bases throughout the Republic of South Sudan so we can be close to the Sudanese police throughout the country. At Yei are two Canadian contingent members, Steve and Tess. Unfortunately the Yei base is closing and the UNPOL will be moving to another base close by which is a UNHCR (United Nations High Commission of Refugees), part of our mission was to facilitate this.



Yei had a famous Canadian police officer here before, a fellow Calgary Police Officer Jim Shaw. When Jim was in Yei he built ‘Blue’ the social building for the camp. Thats Steve by the door.



 The inside of 'Blue' note the Canadian flags there is a lot of them. The UNPOL and SSPS all mention Jim and the good job he did in Yei.

Tess, a member of our Canadian contingent stationed in Yei.

 Steve the other Canuck in Yei

 A meeting in the Yei CSB

 Our mission team visiting the UNHCR base

Steve's accommodation, the cat is friendly and from what I was told likes Canadians as he/she? Was always following Jim around when he was stationed here.

The dirt is so hard it is like cement yet this flower popped out, hopefully it symbolizes South Sudan as a new country

Steve and Tess hosted a really superb dinner for us. Yei is a really nice base, when we were there it had mostly closed down so only Steve and Tess were still living there.

As you can see a lot of buildings from Yei base have been moved off to other CSB sites.

A strange rock formation near Yei, from a distance we thought it was a building. Unfortunately we could not leave the road, to explore it, as the area is a danger for land mines.

The Road home to Juba.