Follow the dispatches from Warrior's Rob Mckee as he travels across South Sudan inspecting the growing Warrior presence in this vast country:
If you really want to learn about a country in Africa, there’s no better way than to travel by road. Every bend and every pool of mud along the way offer something new. You get to know places in a way that is just not possible travelling by air.
As someone responsible for managing nearly 1,500 security officers, it’s important I understand what our people face in the field. Whether it’s the prevailing security situation; travelling distances to and from work; extreme weather; local food & culture; or road conditions, the only way to relate to my staff’s reality is to be with them on the ground.
Warrior Security is now the largest private employer in South Sudan. Securing the contract to guard the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has launched the company onto a new plateau. The UNMISS contract has also extended Warrior Security’s footprint to new locations across South Sudan, many of which are in remote areas that bring Warrior’s Outstations Operations Department to a vast and unique region of South Sudan; Western Equatoria State.
With the aim of getting to know this new area and our security officers securing it, I set out on a 1,500 kilometre journey to see where we are working and what impact we are having.
“Are you sure we can cross this river?” I said to my driver as we reached the outskirts of Juba, South Sudan’s capital city, turning into the long road to Western Equatoria State. Even the experienced Evans, who has been driving these roads for nearly 30 years, seemed hesitant until the boda boda drivers on the opposite side of the riverbank openly chided him for not attempting to cross.
The bridge at Luri, approximately 10 km from Juba, collapsed years ago. The concrete footings still allow vehicles to cross but only if there hasn’t been heavy rain. Many a vehicle has been swept away by the racing current. A new bridge sits not more than 100 metres away awaiting erection but like many projects in South Sudan, things take time to implement here.
“There’s only one way to find out!” As the front tires of our pickup truck dipped into the water the vehicle cruised along nicely. Then all of a sudden we dropped about three and a half feet lower into the water. The level outside the truck and the uncertainty inside the cab rose steadily and evenly. Neither Evans nor I realized we had successfully crossed until the mob of boda boda motorcycle drivers cheered and clapped as we climbed up the other side.
“10 kilometres down and only 1490 kilometres to go,” I said congratulating a beaming Evans.
The going from Luri to Rokon is terrible. Rarely were we able to climb above 10km an hour. The long, pock marked dirt road gave Evans and I a chance to talk. Evans is not a boy. He is well over forty, (he doesn’t know his exact age) and spent the majority of his life fighting for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) during Southern Sudan’s struggle against its northern rulers from Khartoum.
“When the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in 2005, I decided to leave the SPLA”, Evans told me. “I knew that to be able to support my family I would need to find a new job. During the war we weren’t even paid to fight. We just did it because we were oppressed. When the CPA was signed, I knew the country would change and that I would need money. So I became a driver.”
All of a sudden the vehicle stopped and Evans pointed to a hillside in the distance.
“There,” he gestured,“that’s where Bashir hid Osama Bin Laden during the war. That was his base in the bush. It was on that mountainside right there.
In 1988 Osama Bin Laden formed al-Qaeda. The Islamic terrorist leader, who was killed in a raid by US Navy Seals in May 2011 in Pakistan, had been banished from Saudi Arabia in 1992. He shifted his base to what was then a united Sudan, until U.S. pressure forced him to leave in 1996. It is widely known that Bin Laden owned a house in Khartoum and even kept a private jet there until 2001 spending time shuttling between Juba and Khartoum. Apparently he advised the Khartoum regime on how to defeat the SPLA who were fighting against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in northern Sudan.
The fact that Osama Bin Laden lived in Juba in the late 90’s is beyond dispute. It is believed that during this time he planned the attacks on the U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which rocked the security world and in particular the East African region to the core.
On 7thAugust 1998 multiple bomb blasts were detonated almost simultaneously in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing over 220 people.
These attacks, and the fact that Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir harbored Bin Laden, cemented Sudan’s place as a state sponsor of terrorism. The American anti-terrorism assistance program was expanded to East Africa and suddenly Khartoum was attracting all sorts of Western attention and none of it good for Al Bashir.
The tide of the SPLA’s fight against the north began to turn soon after the embassy attacks. This was aided by high-class intelligence; allegedly provided by the CIA; arms and other assistance, given either directly by the US or through client states like Kenya and Uganda, which had their own disputes with Khartoum.
Eight years later South Sudan was a free country. 10 years later I was on the side of the road with a former SPLA fighter-turned-driver for Warrior Security, looking at a grassy mountainside that used to be the field command base for the world’s most notorious terrorist. Such is life in this part of the world.
We got back in the truck and headed for Mundri.
“This is my home,” Evans explained with an ear-to-ear grin when we pulled into town. “My father built that school many, many years ago.” As we drove past a row of ramshackle shops it became clear that Evans was well known in these parts. We couldn't get more than a few metres before someone would approach him, shake his hand and start conversing in their Moro tribal language. “Let’s get something to eat quickly. If people see me back here they’ll never let us leave,” he whispered leading me into a tiny lean to preparing local food.
Surprising the other customers, cooks, and even Evans, I walked toward the kitchen and greeted everyone in simple Arabic, looked inside the bubbling cooking pot and asked “Fee Gardia?” “Aye. Fee Gardia,” the cook responded. The astonished patrons stared as I ordered my own plate of boiled cassava leaves mixed with palm oil poured over rice. I’d done a little research and knew that this was the local dish eaten only by Western Equatorians and communities that border Western Equatoria State.
Scoffing down the food, we got back in the truck and headed for Maridi.
We arrived just as the sun was setting over the horizon, and for the first time in nearly four years in South Sudan I saw proper mountains silhouetted against the diminishing sky. South Sudan is a flat and arid country. To see the landscape change from a vast expanse of dry scrub, sparsely populated by acacia trees, into a mountainous green jungle teeming with life, was a refreshing site and reminiscent of my years in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, West Africa.
As we rolled into Maridi, I looked at my watch. It had been nearly 10 hours since commencing our journey and we hadn’t even visited any of our staff. However when we pulled up to the UNMISS camp, I was pleasantly surprised. We didn’t tell anyone that we were coming and I found all our staff properly equipped and highly alert.
Warrior guards, male and female, take their jobs extremely seriously. This had been evident recently at the UNMISS Maridi site when they arrested one of their own colleagues for fuel theft, and promptly marched him to the local police station. There’s an old saying in our industry that “the biggest threat to one’s security is to think there’s no threat at all.” I noticed this in the demeanor of our guards every time they attended to the main gate and in particular one female guard observing a pedestrian attentively as the gate opened and a UN vehicle left the camp. With PR 24 baton ready she postured herself, not aggressively, but in a way which projected to the stranger to steer clear. Her Warrior Security training was on full show.
After a quick meeting with the client, during which he expressed his overwhelming satisfaction with our takeover of his site, Evans and I checked into a small guesthouse, ate some roasted goat meat and called it a day.
Next stop…the Western Equatoria state capital of Yambio.
(Rob McKee is Warrior's Outstations Operations Manager.)
