Blogs from Khartoum, North, Sudan, Africa - page 2

The result of the January 2011 referendum ensures Sudan will confront a period of momentous and irrevocable change. An overwhelming majority of the population in South Sudan voted for independence from the North, barely ten years after the cessation of hostilities in what was the longest running civil war on the African continent. As a result, North and South Sudan will be going their separate ways. The official date for the proclamation of the newly created South Sudan will be 9 July 2011, so this blog entry may well be the last from the unified country of Sudan. Khartoum is the engine room and traditional capital of the united Sudan, and will remain the capital of the newly created North Sudan. The long running dispute at the heart of the civil war involved access to the ... read more

The plan in Atbara was to catch a bus to the ancient site of Meroe and then flag down something heading to Khartoum. Unfortunately no-one could understand where we wanted to go and the only bus we could find was not leaving until 1pm which would make it difficult to find anything later in the day going to Khartoum. In the end we decided to head straight to Khartoum but the bus was not leaving until 8am so we sat down and had a cup of tea. The tea ladies set up their stands on every street corner. They consist of little more than a brazier and a lockable chest covered with jars of tea, coffee and spices. Stools or old oil cans provide the seating. It is a great way of chatting to the locals. ... read more

My second week of training is now completed. The work week here in Sudan is Sunday through Thursday with Friday and Saturday being the weekend. The week went by quickly, and has seen a few Canadian UNMO’s come and go. All of our tours are staggered so there is never more than a few people at a time on the same schedule. The classes completed this week were generally more interesting as they were designed specifically for us UNMO’s. I am not sure if it is just coincidence or not but the majority of the lectures were given my military officers and there appeared to be a greater sense of professionalism than during the Generic indoc course for all UN workers that we had last week. It is not hard to determine who has had training ... read more

After a relaxing Easter Monday it was time to get to work. First on the schedule was clearing into the UN. This is a process that requires one to march around to locations scattered randomly around the camp, collecting various stamps and signatures to take to the next location. The process and its redundancy were ridiculously yet humorous as I filled the same info on to a dozen of more forms. It was during this walking about when the reality of the +40C weather hit home. Khartoum is indeed a warm place. Wednesday and Thursday was UNMIS indoctrination training. Nothing spectacular there, two days of relatively mundane training, along with some more stamps and signatures. While not particularly enlightening it was a chance to meet a few of the other international military observers. Other new arrives ... read more

Prepare yourselves for a continuation of the picture-imagine-exercise first introduced in the last blog as I write about all the fun I had in Sudan. Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. Ruled by Pharoahs throughout much of its ancient history it was plundered for its assets before being brutally colonised by the British in 1898. Since independence in 1956 it has faced relntless revolts against power and (if you're up to date on your news you should know this) is currently limping through a general election a year before te Christian south will vote on the issue of independence from the Muslim north. Anyway, travelling with Istvan and Radek proved to be a strange but rewarding experience. Radek is gung-ho in every way and thinks nothing through. He charges around a predominantly Muslim country where ... read more