Bentiu

February 22, 2012, I had to fly to Bentiu, which is in theUnity State of South Sudan. My Mission was to meet with UNPOL officers and get some feedback about Police Advising. I traveled with my Friend and Supervisor Georg (German Police).

We flew by plane  a small Russian plane.

Our ride it is a Russian plane an IIyushin of some sort. The aircrew told me but in true fashion I have forgotten the model. For a small plane it sure felt sturdy. I had the feeling that you could not break this plane. The Pilot had a good sense of humor.

Bentiu is located in Unity State, south of Sudan, it is along the Nile river and is the State Capital. The State UN base is located there. UNMISS stands for United Nations Mission In South Sudan.

Georg and I were there to meet with all the UNPOL, but I was also looking forward to seeing Jen and Rob two UNPOL from my Canadian Contingent. Both Rob and Jen wanted hot plates so they could cook (bought them from Konyo-Konyo of course), so I lugged them and some cheese up to their Base.

Rob teaching the picture is blurred as he never is motionless long enough to take a good picture.  Here Rob is teaching the SSPS, the other gentleman is a language assistant for Arabic. Being in the north part of South Sudan Arabic is spoken a lot.

 

Georg and I addressing Rob’s class, which was at the SSPS training facility in Bentiu. We were guests and were asked to talk for a bit. We also wanted to ask the SSPS their thoughts on Co-location and advising. We got a lot of good ideas from them. There is no air conditioning (no electricity) in this building and as you can see no computers, projectors or other high tech learning aids; here you must be a good teacher to get the message out.

Jen standing with some very tall female SSPS officers. Jen specializes in teaching Gender Child Vulnerable Persons and Protection lessons.

Me with some of the SSPS female officers after the training

There are no water pipes in Bentiu so water must be transported to businesses and homes. The main way of doing this is by donkey cart. Boys drive the carts to a pump by the Nile and fill up two 45 gallon oil drums (they are wielded together), and then sell the water around town. I figured the total weight is around a thousand pounds; those skinny little donkeys are pretty strong.

The donkey cart

Me in front of Unity State Police Headquarters. We were here to observe the registration process. Currently the SSPS is registering all Police personnel, when the country got independence from Sudan it had to quickly form a Police Service so there is a lack of personnel records for officers. Each officer will go through a registration process over the next month.

A registration line-up. The officers come here to the HQ to get registered.You can see how people take advantage of shade in Sudan. A lot of these officers walked miles to get here and register.

The River Nile cuts right through the centre of South Sudan from north to south and is used as a commercial transport for barges and boats. Here at Bentiu some UN soldiers are picking up supplies from a barge.

SSPS officers standing at attention while being addressed by a senior officer. Shade is used again.

Donkey carts loading up property from a barge by the Nile.

Somehow I knew this living container belonged to either Rob or Jen. There are two military guys in Bentiu as well but were on Patrol when we were there unfortunately. One of them I had met while staying at Canada House.

Georg and I with some ostriches that were walking down the road.

Jen, Rob, Georg, Biem (SSPS officer and friend of Rob and Jens) and I eating dinner at the Quality Inn restaurant. We ate on the roof as the building was Arabic by its architecture, it was nice and cool there at night (the sun sets at 7 PM). It was dark enough to see the stars and a very pleasant night. The sad thing about Bentiu is that it is so close to the Sudan border that conflict occurs near there constantly. There is no trade along the border so any products are shipped north on the Nile from either Uganda or Kenya via Juba. The prices on a lot of things are almost double that of Juba. The restaurant only had 3 chickens which we shared for our dinner. A lot of people in this area have limited access to food.