Suddenly, Sudan & Its Sudd By Fouad Kronfol

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"I earnestly wanted to play a role in changing the Sudan from a 'Basket case' to 'the Breadbasket of the Arab World"

Fouad Kronfol

Despite my ten plus years with UNICEF in Beirut and many travels abroad I had never stepped foot on the African continent. My first international appointment took me to Cairo where the Area Office covered five countries; Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and South Yemen. As a "seasoned" Programme Officer I was supposed to assist and train a USSR colleague who had joined UNICEF in Cairo, although I was a grade below him.

Finally on the African continent

The Representative, Rolf Moltu, assigned Kirill Dorian to cover the Sudan, and we made our first trip together to Khartoum in early 1971. I learned that he had made only a couple of visits prior to that, but of very short duration each. In Khartoum we were helped by UNDP with a car and a couple of appointments with the Matron in charge of Midwifery in the Ministry of Health. She was an elderly Britisher who was a carry-over of the colonial period and had become the main contact for UNICEF colleagues since she presented them with her section's needs of supplies, equipment and transport on a regular basis. I was surprised that we did not meet any other MOH staff, nor those of other ministries. Also we did not even meet the WHO representative, but Kirill seemed pleased with the info he got and we returned to Cairo with our requests in hand to place on the Basic Assistance List and Supply Lists.

My first trip to Sudan. With Kirril Dorian and Rasheid Beheiry.
With the ubiquitous UNICEF LandRover

My first impressions of that visit were quite negative, seeing the obvious poor levels of development, the lack of any attempts to look at other needs and requirements, the very little interest of the other UN agency colleagues in UNICEF and its work, and especially the rather limited relationships with the Government. While I attributed some of these to Dorian's lack of UNICEF experience, I knew that there was much more that I had to find out.

A long but limited relationship

UNICEF and the Government of Sudan signed a Basic Agreement on 7 August 1956 although programme assistance had started in 1952. From the beginning the country was covered by the Cairo Area Office but it seemed that very little attention was given to Sudan and a series of Programme Officers who handled the programme did so almost as an after-thought. I learned that very few field visits were carried out beyond Khartoum and UNICEF aid was limited to a few small projects with the Ministry of Health. In fact the average assistance of the three preceding years to our visit was around $56,000 per year. Of course, the country was not inviting, the weather quite unpleasant most of the time, the size and development level were daunting, internal travel was of particular difficulty, and many other issues made the Sudan not very popular within the UNICEF Cairo office.

When I related my findings to Moltu, he quickly decided to restructure our responsibilities so that Egypt stayed under his wing (with support from Tony Berouti the Senior Programme Officer), Yemen and South Yemen (PDRY) went to Berouti , while Sudan and Libya became "my" countries. Dorian would have ad hoc duties in the office.This new responsibility initially was quite a shock to me… a young P3 becoming responsible for the largest and one of the poorest countries in Africa.. in addition to and in contrast with Libya which was oil-rich but equally undeveloped as regards children's programmes. Naturally I wanted to prove myself and face the challenges as best I could. Little did I know what was in store for me. Nadia was with me all along but even she was not quite prepared for the turns it would make to our lives.

Look Ma, here is what landed in my lap !!

In the next few months I made many trips to Sudan in order to become better acquainted with the country, its political and economic setup, its people, its difficulties and mainly its possibilities.The context was quite a complicated one in those days; the largest country in Africa at 2.5 million square km; with a population of only 14.8 million in 1973; a new revolutionary government run by the military (Jaafar Numeiry as President); a big loss of foreign companies with the nationalisations of 1970; a one party system (Sudanese Socialist Union); a fifty-year on and off civil war with the South; a UN designated Least Developed Country; a one cash crop (cotton) economy; a single port on the Red Sea (Port Sudan which is located in the northeastern corner and is 850 km from the capital Khartoum); a transportation system dependent on a national railway but which is plagued with problems, both political and technical; practically no road system (the only paved road links Khartoum to Wad Madani, a distance of less than 200 km); a multitude of ethnicities and languages; undeveloped social services; a number of "white elephant" projects including the infamous Jonglei Canal (stopped in 1984)... the list went on and on. On the other hand it has two major rivers (the Blue and White Niles), along which most of the population live; considerable arable land; rich in minerals and oil (not yet a factor at that time) with a great deal of potential for development. A country with borders on the Red Sea and adjoining Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea. An ideal place for dynamic action and both short and long term programmes to improve the situation of children. The French dictum, " l'embarras du choix" best describes the wide spectrum of possibilities that I had to work on. Talk about a major challenge, the Sudan was IT !

Throughout my fact-finding and accumulating data actions I constantly faced the overarching problem of transportation and communications which permeates all aspects of development in the country. No matter what service or field one looked at these two issues were always present as major obstacles to progress. In my analysis I was often reminded of an audience that Rachid Koleilat (UNICEF Representative in the Beirut Area Office) and I had with the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in the early 1960's. Those days national five year plans were being prepared in most countries so we asked the King if Saudi Arabia was also preparing one. He replied; "our country is huge in size with a small population scattered all over. My government would have tremendous difficulty in planning any kind of social services for the citizens because of the paucity of transportation and communication all over. So, our ‘plan’ is to devote the next five or ten years to building roads, ports, airports, telecommunications, etc., until we are able to effectively connect our services to the largest part of the population. It is then that we can actually see how we proceed with our developmental planning processes and activities.”

Those wise words kept coming back to me constantly when examining the Sudan situation. I told this story eventually to most of my Sudanese counterparts.

Flying the Fokker Friendship F27

Because of the size of the country and the unavailability of roads, flying is the most convenient mode of transportation. Sudan Airways had a fleet of the Dutch made Fokker F27 planes which were used mainly for in-country transport. These turboprop planes were one of the most successful European aircraft built after the War. It is small with a capacity of about 40 passengers, its body is low to the ground so one simply steps out directly onto solid terrain, and it is said to be economical. All my trips around the country were on this kind of plane; the problem was that their maintenance was not up to par so delays, cancellations and re-routings were quite common when using Sudan Airways. I always used to joke that on my trips I spent more time in airports waiting than travelling on the planes. Speaking of jokes, the ones about this type of airplane were quite common among the expatriate population. One American friend always started his conversation by, “ I just flew in from Port Sudan on that Fokker plane..etc. etc."

Heat and " Haboobs"

In addition to all its other drawbacks, Sudan has two other characteristics that make life more of a challenge. One is the extreme heat all year round. Khartoum is known as the hottest capital in the world with an average annual temperature close to 40 C. The one good thing is that most of the year it is very dry so that one does not sweat like in most tropical countries. That is why desert coolers instead of air conditioners are a better way of beating the heat. Of course this means that drinking liquids all day was an important activity. Sometimes we remember coming home at night and sprinkling ice-cold water from the fridge onto our sheets in order to go to sleep. When playing tennis in the early afternoons we often had temperatures closer to 50°C, but we each drank about a gallon of liquid. One thing we always enjoyed was drinking lemonade in those specially large glasses that were used in public places.

The other annoying element was the sand storms that are called” Haboob” locally. They are most common from late spring and early summer when the humidity rises. Their extent and strength is amazing; one can see a Haboob coming from hundreds of miles away since they move like a dark wall with astonishing speed. When they hit one's area, the atmosphere turns dark, and everything becomes covered with dust, no matter what one does to avoid it. We have found dust even inside our fridge! The Sudanese have a special sense of an impending Haboob much earlier than others. Once when Nadia was organising a dinner in our garden, she had laid out all the tables and cutlery etc. when Ali, our housekeeper, ran out and told her , "Madame, a Haboob is on its way and we'd better take everything inside”. She looked up into a clear blue sky and couldn't believe it, but he insisted. Soon enough, we had barely brought everything inside when it hit us with a blast that lasted for more than an hour. Some Haboobs are known to last days, so we were very lucky that day.

Preparing my first Project

My initial mission was to collect enough information to develop a health services project for the 1972 Board. UNICEF still had not developed the concept of "country programming", and all recommendations were presented to the Executive Board in the form of projects. The UNDP ResRep. Luciano Cappelletti was a big help for me, with information sharing, administrative support, travel arrangements etc. He delegated one of his local staff, Rasheid Beheiry, to accompany me on my travels. Rasheid was a tall and handsome man with a ready smile and easy going character. He was known as "Al-Amir", the Prince, since apparently one of his forefathers Ali Dinar had been a "King" of Darfur! As such, he had easy access to many of the government officials and this helped me a lot. In the Ministry of Health I established good relations with Dr. Shaker Moussa head of the Health Services Department and we jointly worked out many of the details of what would go into the UNICEF project. He arranged visits to many different health establishments and I got a pretty good idea of needs and deficiencies. Surprisingly I was still unable to meet the WHO Rep. Dr. Rafique Khan who was either away or busy when I called his office. Finally, when I had gathered enough information I started drafting the health services proposal for the Executive Board.

UNICEF's first million Dollar project....

After completing the draft I tried one last time to meet Dr. Khan and finally got an appointment a couple of days before my return to Cairo. I was quite angry that he had not found a slot to meet me all this time, so I went to his office, shook hands with him, gave him a copy of the draft, asked him to send his comments to WHO EMRO (we needed to have the "technical approval" of WHO for any health projects) and told him I was too busy and left his office. The $1.1 million project to strengthen basic health services was approved by the Board and launched UNICEF in Sudan in a substantial way. My trips became more frequent.... I was becoming a fixture in Khartoum.... and I started looking at other programme areas where we could assist. During one of the trips I met George Kassis, whom I knew from our AUB days and who was on a UNESCO mission to Khartoum. He was sharing a house with a young WFP staffer, Staffan De Mistura, with whom I also became friends. Both eventually joined UNICEF and we continued our camaraderie over time.

While I was accumulating information on programme issues I also found myself becoming more interested in the Sudan from the cultural and social aspects. Most Near Easterners had a stereotypical view of the Sudanese as "peanut vendors”. I became much more empathetic to the Sudanese as I learned their history, their ethnicities, their social habits, etc. Being an Arab speaker helped a great deal since I could more easily communicate with government officials, and read the documents and press.

I also quickly learned that there was a well known family of Syro-Lebanese origins called the Kronfli's who had settled and prospered in Khartoum. Though it was amusing at first, I began getting tired of being called Fouad "Kronfli" by the Sudanese. To make the distinction I always introduced myself as "Fouad Mohammed Kronfol", because the Kronfli's were Christians, but it still made no difference most of the time. Little did I know that one day that mixup would be of great value to my tenure in Sudan! But more on that later......

Sudanese humour

While they are often the butts of jokes, the Sudanese have a keen sense of humour and enjoy jokes even if they are about them. Three examples show the type and range of humour they have:

1. Osman phones Ali :

Ali: Marhaba Osman, long time since we saw each other. Tell me from where are you talking ?

Osman: I am talking from my mouth !

2. Osman meets Ali:

Ali: It's been a while. How are things with you?

Osman: I am fine and so is my family. How many children do you have?

Ali: I have 3 sons; Muhammad Muhammadain Muhammad is an engineer; Muhammadain Muhammad Muhammadain is a lawyer; the youngest is Hassan Omar.

Osman: What? Is he not a Moslem ?

3. Numairy meets Anwar Sadat at a state dinner

Sadat: I know that Sudanese say "yes" in three different ways. Can you explain it to me?

Numairy: I will ask Foreign Minister. Mansour who is a linguist to answer.

Dr. Mansour: Excellency! The first kind is those who are the educated elite.. they say, "AYWA"; the second is the middle class persons who say, "AAAYYY"; the third are the uneducated peasants who simply "CLICK their tongue"....isn't that correct President Numairy?

Numairy: CLICK !!

At the confluence of two Niles..

In Khartoum I usually stayed at a small family-run hotel; the two Pagoulatos brothers and their Greek family ran this very centrally located hotel which also served decent food. But I also became familiar with the numerous "Clubs" in the city where different ethnic groups met in their own establishments. Very "à la British", this club orientation to social gatherings was not at all known in Lebanon and the Near East, but they were practically the only places one could go out for a meal or drinks… naturally having to be invited by a member.

While one thinks of Khartoum as the capital city of Sudan, it really consists of three separate “towns", the traditional centre Omdurman; the central and commercial Khartoum, and the Khartoum North suburb. The location of the capital at the confluence of the two Niles (Blue and White Niles) is a remarkable natural feature and very impressive to view. Among the local traditions I enjoyed was attending a wedding and seeing for the first time the ladies doing the "pigeon dance”, where they twist their head and neck imitating a pigeon. The colourful wraps “thob” that most women wear are very attractive and contrast with the white "Jalabiya" that some of the men wear. During trips to outlying villages I always was amazed how they kept their attire so clean and neat when finding and getting water was a difficult proposition at best.

Women doing the "pigeon dance" at a Sudanese wedding

A village near Khartoum. How do they keep their clothes so white and clean when they are not even near a water source?

The three Southern Provinces

In my first trip to the South I visited all three provinces' main towns Juba, Wau and Malakal. On this trip I learned about the "Sudd", that immense tract of water-logged land that constituted a formidable natural "barrier" between the north and the south of the country The civil strife was still a reality which was demonstrated vividly to me when I was taken on a short visit to a village health centre near Juba with a military escort of two Jeeps loaded with armed soldiers! For me it was disheartening to see the extent of under-development in these provinces and how little evidence there was of governmental activity in development areas. Services for children were of course almost non-existent or of very poor quality. The few that functioned were often financed and run by NGOs and missionaries. There were some grandiose projects talked about, including the infamous Jonglei Canal project to drain part of the Sudd, but little evidence of actual implementation. The only viable communication link between the north and the south was the railroad that linked Khartoum to Wau in Bahr-el-Ghazal province. It became quite evident to me that the country's political and economic development could only be accomplished if and when the two regions were joined by a network of transportation and communications for the movement of people, produce and social contact.... the story of Saudi Arabia all over again! And all that before the discovery of oil in the south.

My first trip to Juba visiting a health centre

A funny story: with a Norwegian NGO staffer I flew to Torit to see their work there. Flying over the town we noticed that the pilot kept going around a number of times. When we asked if there was a problem, he said that he was looking for a pole with a balloon attached to show which side the wind came from. Finally, although not seeing it he landed us safely. We were met on the airstrip by an old man who was the caretaker of the "airport". When asked by the pilot about the balloon, he replied, "yes, it is there, but because the wind was very strong I nailed it to the pole so it would not tear!".

An "Education Revolution"

In 1971 /1972 President Numeiry appointed Mohieddine Sabir, a previous UNESCO adviser, as Minister of Education. He developed and organised a revolutionary change in the national education system; whereas the twelve year curriculum had been divided into 4 years primary, 4 years middle school and 4 years high school, this was changed to 6 years primary and 6 years secondary as in most other countries.Thus, overnight all the country's primary schools had to add two grade levels to their setups and to re-train teachers at different levels to conform to the new system… a tremendously difficult and costly undertaking. For the physical structures of the new schools the Ministry obtained much collaboration from the inhabitants of the villages and towns who helped build the additional classrooms needed, but it became complicated to provide the teachers needed for this new system.

Meeting with HE. Mohieddine Sabir, the Minister of Education

In my earlier posting in Beirut I had learned about a new "multi-media teacher training programme" that UNRWA had developed for its own educational system for Palestinian refugees, so I tried to promote this as one solution to the Ministry's difficulties. I obtained much of the information needed from George Kassis who had worked on the UNRWA project. The Minister was interested and asked for many details but I was not able to clinch his final approval. One evening I was summoned by HE Sabir for drinks to discuss further the proposal. We almost went through a whole bottle of Scotch before he said OK, by which time I was almost ready to collapse, but somehow managed to get home. We soon jointly developed a $2.2 million nation-wide teacher training programme which was submitted to the UNICEF Executive Board and approved. The proposal also included a major "noting" (supplementary funding) for a rural water supply and other projects of more than $8 million. In our last meeting the Minister of Education with whom I became good friends, told me: "do you know why I like UNICEF? As a previous UNESCO adviser I can tell you that UNICEF actually gets things done, while UNESCO will produce another study and send more ‘experts’ who know less than I do!". The large rural water supply component created much apprehension at HQ, and I received a two-metre long telegram from Dick Heyward himself with comments and questions. After much discussion the water component was reduced to $2 million for a startup activity in the South. Martin Beyer, our WATSAN HQ adviser helped both flesh out the technical details and convinced Norway to fund the whole project. He even helped recruit my water project officer, Per Engebak, to manage the project.

The Allocations/Commitments pile up...

With these three major injections of regular funds and special contributions Sudan became the largest programme, and the noted water project the first such activity in the Eastern Mediterranean region and consequently contributed to placing the Sudan firmly on the UNICEF map. The programme funding situation at that time was:

Total 1971/72 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977

A. General Resources

Health Services

(P/L. 1488 ) 1,100.0 320.0 258.0 258.0 264.0 -- --

Selected Services

(P/L 1490) 2,244.0 598.7 478.7 552.8 613.8 -- --

Selected Services

(P/L.1613 Add.1) 1,000.0 -- -- -- -- 500.0 500.0

B. Noted Projects

Water Supply

(P/L1490Add.1 ) 1,876.0 -- 896.0 265.0 200.0 515.0 --

Paper for Textbooks

(P/L1613 Add.1) 1,000.0 -- --- --- -- 500.0 500.0

C. Other Funds

CP/PPF 42.0 -- -- -- 32.0 10.0 --

Emergency 35.0 -- -- - 6.7 10.0 --

The 1972 Peace Agreement

In 1972 a very important event gave rise to further evolution of UNICEF in Sudan. After almost half a century of conflict a Peace Agreement was signed in Addis Ababa by the Sudanese government with representatives of South Sudan in which the latter were granted considerable autonomy for self government. This was a major opening for increased development assistance for the southern three provinces of Equatoria, Bahr El Ghazal and Upper Nile. Other than the festivities which marked this important national event, the government organised an important Donor's Conference in Khartoum in February 1972 to provide for considerably augmented emergency and especially development aid to the South. The UN and its Agencies were among the main participants. Because the three approved UNICEF projects had included components for the southern provinces we were in an advantageous position to quickly pledge and implement activities that the Government had included in their overall compendium of needs for the newly autonomous region.

At the Donor's Conference in Khartoum I was invited as a participant but the "official" UNICEF representative was Dr. Othman Farrag, the Regional Planning Officer in ORDEM Beirut. It would not have been appropriate for UNICEF to be represented by a P3 officer when UNHCR had its Commissioner, Prince Sadreddin Aga Khan, and other Agencies had mostly high graded officers. Still, after the formal opening and speeches by the government and the visiting officials, there followed a more practical meeting where the list of "Needs for the South '' were presented in detail by the government and each participating Organization was asked to indicate its contribution or pledge for every sector and activity. It was quite amusing for me that in the discussions of the health, education and rural development sectors I was practically the only one to say "Yes' ' to most of the listed requirements !

At the Donors' Conference for South Provinces. On the left is the UNHCR Commissioner General, Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan and his nominee for head of the Emergency Relief actions with UNHCR as UN Lead Agency.

An interesting side issue of the Conference arose when I asked the Regional Office and NYHQ why UNICEF was not designated as the Lead Agency since we had the experience, the staff, the resources etc.I was told that Executive Director Henry Labouisse had wanted to give a chance to UNHCR… which was still a small and growing Agency... to act as the Lead Agency and acquire the experience of doing so in a difficult situation like South Sudan. That was the main reason why Prince Sadreddin personally attended the Conference and he appointed one of his top officials as the Head of the Programme. In retrospect I learned that this was indeed the first major operation for UNHCR in the capacity of the UN Lead Agency. As it turned out eventually, their limited staff, experience and resources were severely strained in the South and the lead agency role was attributed to UNDP on 31 October 1973.

Another amusing happening of this Conference was the trip that was organised by the government for UN Agency representatives and other Donors to the South in order to see for themselves the actual situation and to meet local officials. I was lucky to fly in the same plane as the UNHCR Commissioner who was accompanied by his spouse, a lady of Lebanese origins. We got to talk on the way to Bahr El-Ghazal province. On landing in Wau, the programme was that Prince Sadreddin would be the first to leave the plane to be greeted by local dignitaries, but he had to first step over a newly slaughtered animal..the local manner of receiving and honouring an important visitor… While the Prince did his part nicely, when it came for his spouse to follow him, she took one look at the bleeding dying animal and fainted! It happened that I was just behind her and managed to catch her before she went down! It was quite a sight I must admit. Eventually things worked out alright and we all flew on to Juba, the capital of Equatoria province and the designated capital of the newly Autonomous South. There we had a few more days of celebrations, official parties, field visits etc. before we all returned to Khartoum. In fact it was then that I met our colleague David Bassiouni and his late wife Mary, as she had an important post in one of the government ministries of the South. While we did stop for a short visit to Malakal in Upper Nile province, fortunately it was a short one as the town really had very limited facilities to show to the donors and the UN agencies.

While I was totally immersed in my dealings with the Sudan, it started to dawn on me that it was becoming impossible to continue in that route without something giving. Carrying on with all the issues was much more than a young and junior staffer could manage. That is, the setup which had started as a "one-man operation" would soon need to change to meet the needs of the burgeoning situation. Even more important, UNICEF could not continue dealing with the Sudan programme by long distance from Cairo.

And then, things started to happen........

On a visit to Cairo in late 1972, Executive Director Labouisse, accompanied by Charles Egger, was attending a party in his honour to which we were also invited. True to his human and diplomatic character Labouisse singled out Nadia and asked about her health (she had a major surgical operation earlier), then gradually turned the subject to me and informed her of his decision to transfer us to Khartoum and appoint me the UNICEF Representative. He then took me aside and confirmed the decision, telling me about his trust in my capacities etc. but also that he wanted the move to be done as quickly as possible as the Sudan situation really needed close contact with the Government and with all the programmes.Though the news was a shocker I felt that the decision had been made mainly on the recommendations of the Regional Director Jim McDougall for whom I had a great deal of respect and admiration.

So, the die was cast !! and Nadia and I had to adjust to our impending transfer to Khartoum and all that entailed in terms of changes to our life....

Double Trouble is Tripled !

1973 turned out to be a very eventful year indeed. My trips to the Sudan were now made with another frame of mind as I sought to prepare the ground for our move and change of status, but also as I had to keep going all the different projects which I had started and to make sure that things moved in the right directions as I would soon be the one who would have the ultimate responsibility for all aspects of UNICEF programmes in that country. I was fully convinced that having succeeded in garnering substantial funding for the country, my main and considerable onus was to now concentrate on implementation and execution of the activities planned. All this, knowing that the impediments were gargantuan and would require all my energy and time to succeed. Little did I know.....

One of the events that marked us most was the sudden deterioration of my Mother's health and her passing in June. She had moved with us to Cairo and seemed to be under control with her heart problems. Having lost my Father in 1965 this was naturally for me, an only child, a major trauma. Maybe it was for the best because having to go to Khartoum with her serious condition would have been quite a challenge.

The next important happening was the October War between Egypt and Israel. As it happened I was flying to Khartoum for some follow up work, including to find out what was holding up my Agrement from the Government. My mid-day flight with Libyan Airways was scheduled for 1 pm. But all of a sudden there was some tension in the airport and our flight was called for departure just after noon. We were very surprised but once air-borne the pilot announced that all commercial flights around that time were being sent off because Egypt was closing its air space as it appeared that military activities had already started. In fact it looked like we were the last flight to depart from Cairo that day. Landing in Khartoum I learned more about the start of hostilities but was confronted with a new challenge; how to get back to Cairo !

We had started preparing for our transfer and there were many things we needed to finalise. Nadia was on her own and had decided to visit her parents in Alexandria while I was on my mission. With the news of the conflict she hurried back to Cairo, among other reasons, to recover all our Persian carpets we had sent out for cleaning before we moved. From Khartoum I was frustrated because there was no way I could get back to Egypt since all avenues had been closed off. After a few days UNDP informed me that the Egyptian Government had issued a communique that a steamship, the SS Souriya ,would be provided to bring home from Piraeus Port in Athens all Egyptians who had been stranded in Europe because of the war. I found a way to fly through Libya to Athens and luckily managed to get on to the ship with thousands of other passengers.The normal crossing by ship takes about three days. In that case our ship had to first sail westward towards Libya, then hug the coast-line as close as possible to reach Alexandria. It was a most frightful crossing as we encountered many warships on the way and at least one submarine (we didn't know which country owned it) that followed us for some time. Our ship was completely lit up all night to indicate we were a civilian carrier, but there was great apprehension among the crowded thousands of whether we would be attacked. In any case on the fifth morning a big cheer broke out among the passengers as we saw the distant shores of Alexandria, and finally I arrived safely and was happy that Nadia came back to stay with her folks. It was quite an ordeal, that whole trip to Khartoum.

On another front the next big shock came with the October decision by OPEC to triple the price of oil and thus a new world wide economic crisis was launched. Of course very soon it became evident that the crisis was hurting the poorer countries as much or more than the industrial ones, and the UN and UNICEF came up with a new classification of beneficiary countries; "Most seriously affected (MSA)". For the Sudan, already a Least Developed Country (LDC), this was another blow to its economy and development efforts and for me a further tribulation to deal with.

To make things even worse, the closure of the Suez Canal meant that any shipment of UNICEF assistance from Europe (UNIPAC for example) would have to go around Africa and up the Indian Ocean to Port Sudan, adding a great deal to the time and cost of our aid. Once again, the country's geography was to play a very big role in slowing and making its economic progress more costly, since getting things from Port Sudan to the rest of the country was already a major headache. All these events were to add to my problems of project implementation and execution of our Plans of Operations.

Juba Jumps Justly......

One positive element was that although the delays in my Agrément meant UNICEF could not officially open the Khartoum Office with me as Representative, I had managed to get agreement to establish a project "sub-office" in Juba as part of our assistance to the three Southern Provinces after the UNHCR took on the lead agency role. Our demarche was done with the understanding that Juba would start as a sub-office to the Cairo Area Office. Happily we were also able to quickly recruit a young Project Officer, William Reddaway, who took up his duties in Juba in October or November 1973. Thus, a UNICEF presence in Sudan was established before the opening of a country office.

A couple of amusing incidents....

In the aftermath of the Addis Agreement, the Khartoum government gave the South plenty of autonomy and a regional Cabinet was set up in the capital Juba. Soon after all the newly appointed Ministers from the South were invited to Khartoum for joint meetings with the Cabinet in the North. On one occasion I was invited by HE M. Sabir, the Education Minister, to a dinner at his residence where both Cabinet members (North and South) would socialise. It was quite an honour for me as I was the only non-Sudanese at the party. It was a great opportunity for me also to meet first-hand with Cabinet members from both regions. As in most Sudanese dinners, the food was laid out around nine pm. Meanwhile all the guests were drinking heavily and slowly becoming less and less coherent. At around 11:00 pm. a white VW "Beetle" drove up to the gates and out stepped the last guest… it was the President, Jaafar Numeiry, driving himself and dressed in the typical white Jalabiya with the turban around his head. He was warmly greeted by all the guests and I had the pleasure to be introduced personally to him by the Minister of Education. It turned out to be a very special evening, which I greatly appreciated.

One day I was asked by the Minister of Education to join him on a visit to a newly enlarged school which he was to inaugurate in a village not too far from Khartoum. We set out in a caravan of some half a dozen vehicles with the Minister and myself in his sedan vehicle while others were in Land Rovers in order to arrive around 11:00 am at the school where there would be speeches, the inauguration and a lunch in honour of the dignitaries. After more than an hour travelling on tracks in the desert (there was no paved road) and getting quite dusty in the process, the lead cars stopped and came to tell the Minister that we were lost, and they could not find the village. He was understandably in a rage and gave his staff a tough reprimand. The unpleasant situation was saved when an old shepherd came by and gave us the proper directions to the village. When we finally arrived it was close to 1 pm. All the people had gone home and the food was removed. A very "speedy inauguration" was concluded and we drove back to Khartoum.... a realisation in real time of the problems of communication and transportation in the Sudan..

Finding Solutions: Fuad Helps Fouad.....

Since the Sudan's transportation and communication problems had suddenly increased many fold, I sought the help of the Beirut Offices (Regional and Area) to find ways to ease the difficulties we were facing. Jim McDougall invited me to Beirut for consultations…. since I had to await the formal Agrément from the Government anyway.... and we jointly worked out a way to speed up the opening and activation of the Sudan Country Office, once the go-ahead came from the Government. As there was not much that could be found in the Sudanese market, we would have to import most of the office equipment from abroad, Beirut being the least expensive and most appropriate. There arose the issue of transporting supplies and equipment to Khartoum. We did our homework meticulously and found that air-lifting almost all that was needed to start the office was not only quickest , but also economical. The main stumbling block was convincing NYHQ about it. After much to-ing and fro-ing we got the OK from Dick Heyward himself and I went about ordering everything we needed from the Beirut market. In this case I had enormous help from the late Fuad Awad, the Administrative Officer (NO) in Beirut. His knowledge of the market, his connections with merchants and his financial acumen were assets that were inestimable in the way we managed to procure and prepare for air-shipment to Khartoum. Best of all, the office's connections with Middle East Airlines (the prime airline in the region at the time) with a direct flight to Khartoum enabled us to obtain special rates that made the operation feasible.

To Russia With Rubles...

Once most of the Khartoum business was under control, all we had to do in Beirut was await the Agrément. One day we learned that a charter flight was being organised from Beirut to Moscow and Leningrad (the name was later changed to St. Petersburg) by a group of Lebanese for prices that were extremely low. So together with the late Maria Diamanti (who was the Information Officer in ORDEM) and Josette, the daughter of our late colleague Tony Berouti, we joined the tour. It turned out to be a most interesting introduction to the situation behind the Iron Curtain. We were taken care of by "Intourist", the official governmental tourist agency, who also gave us a dedicated guide (Svetlana) for the duration. Both Moscow and Leningrad were a feast for the eyes as we visited one palace after another as well as many other noteworthy museums besides the Hermitage. We were lodged in the Rossiya Hotel, with 6,000 rooms, the largest in the world at that time, which is across the Red Square from the Kremlin. There were many specifics that are worth mentioning: the famous GUM department store with a paucity of items for sale; the Berioska shops open for tourists only where items were sold for foreign currency; the New Year's Day visit to Lenin's Mausoleum where we saw thousands of Russians lined up while we were escorted directly inside; the incredible subway system with its magnificent stations; etc. We did have a memorable New Year's Eve party at the hotel where we were plied with drinks galore, so much so that many of our group became drunk or sick. Tourists were not allowed to spend any rubles anywhere except at one of the bars in the Rossiya hotel. Thus, the Rubles that we had brought with us from Beirut (bought at considerably lower prices) we spent on bottles of vodka in the bar, not only for us but for all other customers, including the band. On departure we were warned that it was illegal to take Rubles out of Russia against serious penalties so it was a sad sight to see the Lebanese in our group throwing out thousands of Rubles in the waste baskets before we went into security !

We left Moscow under a heavy snowstorm and were informed it would be a difficult trip. Our hopes for improvement in the weather were dashed when the pilot informed us we were landing in Odessa because of the storm. Arriving around 6 am meant the airport was closed, and we had to wait until 8 o'clock before they could deplane us…. a most uncomfortable few hours with no food or drink and overflowing toilets. Once off the plane they herded us into a waiting chamber which looked like a prison and where we had no access to anything. Another few hours of misery passed before we finally took off for the last leg to Beirut. An interlude to remember, by all means.

Landing in Khartoum as UNICEF Representative and with a Red UN Laissez Passer

The Agrément came in early January 1974 and we flew into Khartoum with much of the UNICEF Office supplies and equipment as well as furnishings for the Representative's residence (HQ had agreed that we could procure basic household needs that would be left for the next Representative). There started a new phase in our lives; myself with a red UN Laissez Passer as the UNICEF Representative to Sudan, and Nadia as the wife of a Chief of Mission among the diplomatic group in Khartoum. We had two overriding tasks to attend to immediately; a place to live and finding accommodations for an Office. While we stayed at the Acropole Hotel and Nadia started finding her way around town, I was looking at various buildings for the office. In this I was greatly helped by two staffers who had now joined UNICEF; Rashid Beheiry was officially transferred from UNDP to work as our Administrative Officer, and a young Sudanese lady with Middle Eastern background, Viviane Sakkal, who became the first and principal secretary. The three of us thus became in essence the core of the Khartoum Country Office of UNICEF.

We were lucky on both counts with the premises. For a residence we found a nice little villa built by a Sudanese who had studied in the US and who wanted a house that looked western, rather than the traditional local structures. It was located in a newly developed part of the city close to the Airport called the New Extension. On our Street No. 15 were a number of diplomatic missions including the embassies of Qatar, Kuwait and Lebanon (to my surprise and our pleasure we discovered that the Ambassador Buland Beydoun was a distant cousin of my father's). The two storey house had 2 bedrooms, a large living/dining area and was surrounded by a small lawn and garden making it quite a pleasant residence. The second floor was a large open space, not really finished and with no cooling equipment so we used it mainly as a storage space. We quickly learned the merits of "desert coolers" as opposed to air conditioners… the very dry weather coupled with the extreme heat became worse with an A/C since they emit dry cold air, while the coolers blow out humidity through a misty cool air that attenuates the heat. Their drawback is that one has to have open windows to get maximum effect.

The front of our house on 15th Street in New Extension. With Noell in full alert.

The living room with UNICEF furniture from Beirut...

I do not remember by whom nor how but we were shown a very pleasant villa close to town centre with a small backyard garden and enough space for our needs. Rasheid, Viviane and I inspected it a number of times and settled on the rent we had negotiated, so UNICEF finally had office space for its new Khartoum outpost. The house required little touches so we were able to move in with the office equipment very soon after signing the lease. From my records the address was : House 74, Street No.49, Khartoum. It was near MakNimr Street in downtown and easily accessible to Government departments. Because we had flown in most of the equipment we were able to start functioning almost immediately, which was very encouraging after the very long time it took to obtain the Agrément. In addition to the three of us, we soon recruited a typist/secretary (Asma Gasmallah), a driver, an office messenger and a watchman for the villa.

A word about our driver, Abdel Majid Abdel Gadir. A small man with a pleasant personality and very knowledgeable about the local communications and transportation situation, he was initially driving the LandRover we borrowed from one of the UNICEF assisted projects but seemed unhappy with the vehicle and kept asking me if and when we would get another car. I learned that he had been the personal driver of the Mahdi, a political and religious big shot in Sudan, and he had driven a Rolls Royce for many years. I assured him our official vehicle would soon arrive (by air from Beirut Freeport) but it would not be of comparable design ! We did get soon after a Toyota sedan which made Abdel Majid quite happy especially when he could fly the UN flag on it during official trips !

Another interesting personage.... the watchman we managed to get was none other than Saleh Wageehallah, who had been the cook and man-servant of Staffan De Mistura and George Kassis when they were rooming together in Khartoum. He was very happy to work again and especially with someone he had known before. The villa had a small space in the garden which became his personal living accommodations. He quickly adapted to the office setup and became popular with all of us because he used the lemons from our garden to make delicious lemonade for all the staff and visitors.

Settling in.... and a surprise visit.

While Nadia took care of the residence my priority became the setting up of the office with equipment, supplies, work methods and responsibilities, and a myriad of matters to attend to so as to make the SCO a working outfit in as fast a time as possible. All this with my having to do the rounds of the government departments we dealt with, as well as the diplomatic circle, especially those countries who were on the UNICEF Executive Board. In the back of my mind I was anxious to complete the installation of this new UNICEF country office so as to show HQ that it was cost effective to have air-shipped most of our needs, rather than wait months if they had to be shipped by sea around Africa and to Port Sudan.

My premonitions were correct when barely a couple of months after arrival we were informed that Louis Gendron, the Director of Administration in New York, would be visiting Khartoum as part of a trip to East Africa. Although unexpected, the visit was very welcome from our side as we were able to demonstrate how we completed a transfer, started a new office and set it up as a working concern in a difficult country within such a short period of time. Louis went back to NYHQ fully convinced that all we did was worthwhile and that must have allayed to some extent Dick Heyward's concerns. I was especially pleased that Nadia organised an elegant dinner (she used the beautiful Rosenthal china we had bought in Copenhagen earlier) for Louis in our villa which he also inspected carefully and agreed that our choice of furniture and equipment was most appropriate. In all it turned out to be a successful visit and Louis remembered the occasion every time we met, even after we both retired.

Our lop-sided French Escritoire

One of the few items of furniture we brought from Cairo was an "antique" drop-leaf desk (escritoire in French) which served for shelving and as a writing desk. It was a very attractive piece and we decided to ship it with our other effects. The day the shipment arrived I went to Khartoum airport to check on the unloading and help finalise paperwork for its clearance. When it came to unloading the desk from the cargo hold, two workers were handling the rather large and heavy piece and as they lowered it to the ground it fell out of their hands and landed on one of its corners… my heart dropped as I thought it was surely badly damaged. It was the first thing we unpacked at home and were surprised to see that there were no breaks but the whole piece was now lop-sided, tilting some 10-15 cm to the side. We were relieved and got a carpenter to try to redress the piece with various vises. Although it improved somewhat, the desk remained slightly tilted and less solid but made for a good conversation piece with guests.

Our lop-sided escritoire, partly redressed.

Life in Khartoum...

Although the Sudan was a relatively difficult country because of shortages in many areas, our life was generally pleasant as we quickly adapted to the social situation in Khartoum, and myself and the UNICEF staff became better known among the government departments we dealt with. On the social scene we were fortunate to develop a wide spectrum of relations as we moved in many circles; the UN and Diplomatic group, the Sudanese official group, the Syro-Lebanese community, and the foreign expatriate group.

We became good friends with Luciano and Liana Cappelletti, the UNDP ResRep, who also were a great help on many practical issues. We later were reunited in New York. Another couple was Jamshid and Francoise Anvar of UNHCR with whom we also reunited in NYC. With many other UN personnel also we developed close friendships; it happened that we were four graduates of the American University of Beirut posted to Khartoum with four different UN Agencies; Louay Jaby was with WFP; Ramsay Bisharah with WHO; David Noursi with the IMF and myself with UNICEF. This unusual circumstance was a boon for all of us and our spouses.

Among the Syro-Lebanese group our first contacts were the Sakkals; Emile and Yvonne were the parents of Viviane, our principal secretary and were gracious in welcoming us to Khartoum and to life in the city. We also became close with others from this group including the Kattans, the Maaloufs and Mirhegs. It happened that Fuad Maalouf, Fuad Mirheg and myself often found ourselves together in social events and used to joke about a Lebanese saying that if three persons of the same name get together they will find a treasure. No such thing happened, though, to our dismay !!

Entertainment ..

Khartoum was not known as a fun place to be sure, but we still had a few places to go to on occasion; open air movie houses were the norm in this hot climate and they showed B grade Hollywood and lots of Bollywood; there was even a nightclub, "Gordon's", where we once took Charles Egger during his visit to the Sudan; at the International Club there was the Saturday night Bingo which attracted much of the expatriate community, and there is a story worth telling: on one occasion the Special Grand Prize was two return tickets on Sudan Airways from Khartoum to London on the inaugural flight of their new VC-10 aircraft. When the cry "BINGO" was heard we all looked around and there were two hands in the air, one of which was Nadia’s. The other was a young physician with his fiancée. After much discussion It was decided that they would play-off a round to see who would get the tickets, and Nadia won. We then proceeded to spend a long weekend in London and were royally treated in first class on both ways. It was sheer delight !!

Sports like I never imagined..

Despite the heavy workload and the extreme weather, it is surprising that we still managed to exercise in various ways. My love for sports led me to take up tennis again after a layoff of many years. The attraction was that for the first time in my life I could play on grass. It was quite incongruous that of all places Khartoum would have grass courts, including the public ones. In addition a number of residences had their private grass courts where we were invited regularly for tennis. One of the best kept courts was at Fuad Merhig's, but we also played at the World Bank Rep’s house when Gautam Kaji and Binta came to Khartoum on assignment. We all enjoyed swimming at the International Club where the pool was one of their main attractions. I also tried to play golf a couple of times at the invitation of a friend. Imagine my surprise the first time to see that we were playing on dirt all the time and the greens were in fact "browns", and the soil was covered with oil to make it more solid. Another particularity was when I tried to remove my ball from the cup and my friend stopped me saying, "use the club because often there are scorpions in there !" A most unusual event was when we were attending the Peace Agreement festivities in Juba, the WHO Rep., Dr Rafique Khan, asked if I would play squash with him. To my surprise he said he had found an abandoned court, full of weeds and with broken walls but still playable. I had never played that sport but went along, not knowing that he had been a national champion in Pakistan. The drubbing was terrible, but we banged away for a couple of hours anyway… a notable initiation for me. On other occasions I joined a group of US Embassy marines and staff in games of softball on weekends. I had been an All Star pitcher for many years in Beirut in the 1950's and 1960's where we had a League with up to nine teams at times. The astonishment of the Khartoum crowd was really great when they saw me throw that ball, and I became an instant hit with the Ambassador who always attended the games.

The Lufthansa Tennis Tournament; playing against R. Bisharah

from WHO

My first attempt at golf in the sand

The Diplomatic circle..

As a neophyte Representative I was quickly learning that there was another important element to being head of a UNICEF Office. The Director of Protocol in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs early on reminded me that as Chief of Mission I was in the diplomatic list and was expected to attend the various official functions such as national day receptions of the countries represented in Sudan as well as other events of the Government. Consequently we had to add these to a very crowded agenda; even though Khartoum is a backwater posting there were still about 70 missions. Our closest friends were the Lebanese Ambassador and his Brazilian wife since he was a cousin of my Father's and he was retiring from service soon. On the other hand our best friend became the young and dashing Turkish Charge d'Affaires, Selçuk Tarlan. One of the nicest diplomats in town, he was also a fair tennis player and we hit it off from the start. To this day we are in contact on a regular basis. The US Ambassador was quite a character… he attended our softball games in jeans and baseball cap, but came to the field in his official limousine flying the US flag ! His wife had a drinking problem and in all receptions there were always two Marines to escort her home when she had a few too many. Many of the Western Embassies had officials with whom we socialised regularly, including the French Ambassador and his wife who were in a class by themselves. I also hit it off with the USSR Ambassador because we could talk in Russian. He was a jolly good fellow and an authority on vodka. In fact, the only time in my adult life that I got drunk was at his residence when he made me taste a few of his "home-made" vodkas!

Enter Noelle...

Speaking of the French Ambassador, as they were leaving Khartoum his wife asked Nadia if we would take their dog because they were not taking it back to France. We agreed as we had a small garden and had never owned an animal pet. It turned out that Mme. l'Ambassadrice had found this stray puppy in front of their residence on Christmas Day, so she nursed it and named her "Noelle”. For a mongrel the dog had very fine features, lovely eyes and a very gentle manner. We both got quite attached to her and she was a nice addition to the household as well as a useful security element. When we, in turn, left the couple who took over our house also adopted Noelle, so we were quite happy. One of her most endearing features was that she always greeted us as we drove into our garage by lifting her fore paws like the famous Lipizzaner horses at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. It was a delightful moment every time.

Nadia playing with Noelle in our garden

The Perks....

In a place like Khartoum where many things were in short supply, one is pleased to obtain perks that come with being an official on the Diplomatic list. One advantage we had was the small "Commissary" run by the Government where we had tax free privileges, including liquor but very little else. Just before we left they increased the space and the items available which was quite welcome. Another notable event was a "field trip" organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Khartoum based diplomats which took us all to Atbara in the north of the country and which is the main hub of the national railways.

Ali, our devoted Housekeeper..

After a rather bad start with one, we were very lucky to engage Ali as our '' Man About the House '' who stayed with us until we left. A pleasant looking and middle aged man he had worked earlier with some embassies and so was quite familiar with the needs of expatriates. A very devout Moslem, he even refused to serve us liquor when Nadia and I had an evening alone at home. But, he was a very honest man, of mild and positive character and did his house work without too much difficulty. His cooking was more than fair and we were pleased that he accepted Noelle quite naturally and took care of her during our absences.

The Yellow "Beetle" 

I made it a point to not use the office car except for official business, so we bought from Beirut Freeport a Volkswagen Beetle for Nadia's use when I was at work. It was a bright canary yellow colour and, obviously, one of a kind in Khartoum. It also was a subject of conversation because of its uniqueness, but we were very pleased with it and when we left our colleague Per Engebak, who had just joined the Sudan office as our WATSAN officer, bought it for his use.

Nadia's Yellow Beetle

Feed Thy People !!

An interesting aspect of setting up the Khartoum office was that the villa we rented had a nice backyard with some fruit trees, a small row of trellises with grape vines, and a coop in the back. Knowing that there were many shortages of basics, especially for our local staff, I put to use my agricultural background and tried to improve the lives of our staff by nurturing the fruit trees, pruning the vines (we got nothing good in terms of grapes). On the other hand, I found a way to import from some of my university friends 100 day old chicks of the Leghorn variety which we flew into Khartoum and installed in the little space in the garden. At first we fed them remnants of food from different sources but one day the Ministry of Health called me to complain that the latest shipment of US-donated Corn Soy Milk (CSM) which UNICEF provided to nutrition projects was unfit for human consumption because they found weevils in the product. I quickly went to the Medical Stores and ascertained the damage, but also came away with a few sacks of the product which we fed to our chicks. That turned things around immediately and soon they grew to lay eggs, which we donated to the staff as well as the excess roosters. Here we had willy-nilly started an "applied nutrition" project for our own personnel and I was quite pleased with this experiment.

Officially " launching" UNICEF in Khartoum

While much activity had been going on since our opening of the UNICEF offices in Khartoum and Juba I was conscious that we needed a special " event" to formally and officially launch UNICEF in the country. The opportunity finally presented itself when we decided to have a big reception to celebrate UNICEF's Anniversary on 11 December 1974. We opted to have it in our residence which would be more convenient and pleasant than any hotel in town. I informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the event and was quite happy to note that the Director of Protocole seemed especially pleased.. the look on his face indicated him saying to himself, "it was about time you had your launch !" Arrangements had to be made with government departments regarding the list of invitees, security and other details since we were inviting senior government officials, Ambassadors and other VIPs. We organised the catering with the Acropole Hotel and got the liquor from the Government's Commissary. The day before the reception Nadia called me at the office to say that a Sudanese police detail had come to our residence to discuss security and she did not know what to do. Rasheid and I hastened back and found that in fact this was "standard procedure" whenever an official reception with Ministers and Diplomats attending was happening. We understood that a few years ago at the Saudi Embassy reception there was a terrorist attack where people were killed, and so the government now had to ensure security for all such events. The day of the reception we were surprised to see a truckload of soldiers come to our place. They surrounded our compound and all vantage points in our garden… it was at once reassuring but also comical ! We knew, of course, that all these soldiers would have to be fed somehow, not to mention the drinks that they would sneak away. In any case the party was a big success and we were then "officially launched" as the UNICEF Sudan Country Office.

UNICEF Anniversary on 11 December 1974. The reception to formally launch UNICEF in Khartoum. With Rasheid Beheiry and HE Sir El Khatem Khalifa and spouse, the Minister of Higher Education and UNICEF Envoy to the Gulf Arab Development Funds.

The UNICEF reception...with HE Buland Beydoun and Spouse, Ambassador of Lebanon to the Sudan

BACK TO BUSINESS .......

Opening up to Africa !

While the Sudan was part of the UNICEF Middle East region, I realised that there were many opportunities to look beyond our region and especially to neighbouring countries and institutions to the west and south of the country. It seemed the right thing to do since seven of the nine countries adjacent to Sudan belonged to other UNICEF regions including both East and West Africa regions. One of my first actions was to establish relations with UNECA, the Economic Commission for Africa, which had a sizable social development department and from where we could obtain much useful information/statistics as well as tap other professional and technical sources. This entailed a trip to Addis Ababa, and to nearby Nairobi where again I connected with the UNICEF East Africa regional office and its range of staff and professional resources. I was encouraged by the welcoming attitude of both institutions to cooperate with the Sudan country office as and when possible. While not much practical actions were actually implemented during my short tenure in Khartoum, this opening to other regions became a reality in later years, especially with Operation Life-Line Sudan, and eventually with the secession of the South and its becoming a separate independent country. For the record, though, I was not supportive of the efforts to separate the southern provinces from the rest of Sudan. In all my discussions with government officials, especially in Khartoum, I promoted the increased development of communications, transportation and mutually supportive actions in order to cement the links between the two parts. In the end, politics and economic factors (oil specifically) contributed to the secession and independence of South Sudan. In my mind, it did not need to have come to that........

Visits to East Africa were not all business, however, as Nadia and I managed to go on tourist "safaris'' twice in both Kenya and Tanzania. One memorable stay took us to the Mount Kenya Safari Club, a luxury establishment then owned by the Hollywood star Williamm Holden. It really was the epitome of high-end tourism and our few days’ stay there were memorable ones. Moreover, we were joined by Agne and Mopsy Johansson and their two daughters, our close friends from Beirut days. The other notable safari took us to all the main wild-life areas of Tanzania with their exceptional variety and number of fauna, including Serengetti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara etc. While accommodations and food in Tanzania were not as well developed as in Kenya in those days, the scenery and viewing of animals made up for the slightly less comfortable facilities.

Working with others..

In light of the enormous amount of programmatic matters to deal with I opted to develop cooperative relations with all other UN Agencies to the extent possible. With UNDP I had a cordial working relation with Cappelletti, but our actual programme coordination was minimal, except in the South when they took over the UN Lead Agency role from UNHCR. In Juba, our sub-office headed by William Reddaway had a number of projects where the two Agencies cooperated. With WHO I mended my relations with Dr. Khan and he changed his attitude when I came to Khartoum as the UNICEF Rep. He realised, of course, that our projects which brought in more substantial resources to the health sector could only benefit WHO . I also realised that WHO had a fairly large country programme from regular resources with many of their projects closely related to our own. It was quite strange, however, that my own relations with the Minister of Health did not become stronger, even though UNICEF had become a major donor in that field. Nevertheless my dealings with the Director of Health Services, Dr. Shaker Moussa, and other departments were quite close and often. It was in the education field that I had the best relations with the Minister, Mohieddine Sabir, who was a dynamic and open person and who personally took interest in our joint projects.The ISETTI teacher training project became quickly our most important contribution as it was rolled out to all the provinces. This project also had the distinction of being the first large-scale provision of non-supply assistance in the Sudan. From transport, to supplies and equipment our office now had to deal with transfers of cash, managing finances, monitoring of expenditures, reporting etc., much of these being new to our staff.

Cooperating with UNHCR and WFP was also an element in our work programme, particularly the latter. One notable event was my being invited by WFP in March 1973 to participate in an inter-agency assessment mission of their large school feeding project together with UNESCO. The team's travels took us to all fifteen provinces of the country, thus I believe I became the first UNICEF staffer to have visited at least once every administrative division of the Sudan. We used all means of transportation, including a military plane, but some of our trips were quite eventful. One such flight from Khartoum to Wau became hazardous when we hit an enormous sand storm and lost our bearings. We could not turn back to Khartoum because our fuel was insufficient, so the pilot opted to continue southward hoping to make it to Wau in Bahr-el-Ghazal province. Since there was no radio there our only hope was to fly low in the hope of finding the railroad line that led to Wau..... after a very anxious hour we managed to see the silver rails which we followed and made it safely to our destination. Another adventurous trip was driving in a Land Rover from El-Fasher to Nyala, a distance of about 150 km. It took us more than nine hours as we struggled over terrain where there was no road. We also ventured from Nyala to the town of El-Geneina at the border of Chad, where an emergency feeding project was being mounted. Both these overland trips only strengthened our findings that transportation and communication were really the major problems of programme delivery in the Sudan.

Visiting boarding schools in Atbara with the WFP Evaluation Mission of the School Feeding Programme.

Developing new avenues of assistance

Even though we had difficulties in executing our existing projects, I continued to discuss with the government other areas of support, including in the social welfare area. I was encouraged by the appointment of Dr. Fatima Abdel Mahmoud as the Minister of Social Affairs. She became the first and only female Cabinet member which was a big plus for the Sudan. We discussed the possibility of training for social workers in her Ministry, falling back on similar projects that succeeded in Jordan and Lebanon. We also envisaged using the ISETTI model for in-service training. I also increased our involvement in nutrition activities with support to the nutrition education project in the Ministry of Education.

The headaches of programme implementation...

Planning and programming UNICEF assistance from Cairo, I found out, was much easier than actually sitting in the Sudan and trying to execute the plans of operation and monitor implementation and spending of the considerably increased resources that became available to the Khartoum and Juba setups. That, plus all the other dimensions of heading the two UNICEF offices quickly became a task that I could not accomplish all by myself. I desperately needed more hands-on-deck, especially in the programming , supply and financial fields. Part of my problem was that the precipitous opening of the two Sudan offices was done without a proper administrative budget to start with. NYHQ and ORDEM simply took out some funds from the Cairo office for our immediate use, until we could prepare and obtain our own budget. This naturally hampered the recruitment of staff, among other difficulties. The other side of personnel problems was finding qualified Sudanese (other than Beheiry and Sakkal who were already on board) who could take some of the responsibilities off me. It was not until the end of the first year that we finally recruited a National Officer for programme work, when Makkawi Makkawi, who had worked with UNDP, was able to join SCO. On the international side also, the delays in recruiting another Programme Officer, as well as a Water Project Officer were considerable. Both eventually arrived well into the second year of my tenure. Uffe Konig, who was selected for the Programme Officer post had been stationed in Tanzania and had performed exceptionally well, so I was quite pleased with his transfer to Khartoum, even though it took some time to actually effect the move. He proved to be a worthy aide and when I left became the Officer-in Charge, and eventually the next Representative.

The "Leaks" in the water project....

While both the health and education projects were being implemented fairly well, despite the circumstances, the Norway funded water project faced enormous difficulties. This was a real issue for me as it had been my pride and joy to have developed the first such project in the Middle East region, and it was a fairly large amount that was so quickly funded by the donor. The initial development of the technical aspects went rather smoothly and I got great help from Martin Beyer, the HQ WATSAN head. In the South, where we intended to start the project, I managed to get a WHO Sanitary Engineer to help with the technical details. The main problem was in HQ where the Supply Division and WATSAN could not agree on the type of drilling equipment to purchase for the Sudan. The discussions between the two setups in NY and Copenhagen did not involve my office, and so I was unaware of the problem until I happened to go to HQ for an APC meeting a few months after taking over the SCO. It took much more argumentation and to-ing and fro-ing until the issues were resolved, but all this took time and until the equipment was ordered and shipped to Sudan, many more months went by. In the end, this was my biggest disappointment from the programming perspective and it left a bitter feeling of not having been able to see results from an innovative project in which I had put so much effort.

The Greeting Card operation

There were not many sales in Sudan before our arrival, and a few cards used to be sent from Cairo to the UNDP office which sold them mainly to UN staff. On the other hand, there were no other suppliers of cards on the market and so we decided to start a campaign and Nadia took on the responsibility of organising it. When we moved to the new office we brought all the unsold cards from previous years which had been stored in Khartoum. Our objective was to mix them up in boxes of ten and sell them together with the new stocks we had ordered from GCO. When we opened the cartons to take out the cards, we were surprised to see that more than a third of the cards had been eaten by termites ! We saved what we could, but learned that storing paper products was not a simple matter in Khartoum. Nadia managed to get most of the Embassies and other UN offices interested, as well as one of the book stores in town. She also got a few of the commercial outfits like Shell Oil, Middle East Airlines, etc. to buy our cards. We ended up with a quite big increase in sales during that first year's holiday season. I was happy that she took on this responsibility as it took a load off our small staff contingent. It became also a topic of conversation as she drove around town in her yellow "Beetle" delivering cards to Embassies and others.

Fundraising for UNICEF

It was obvious that the Sudan would not be a place where UNICEF could raise funds, other than the little we managed from the sale of Greeting Cards. On the other hand I suggested to the Regional Office in Beirut the appointment of the Sudanese Minister of Higher Education, Sirr Al-Khatim al Khalifa, as a special envoy to the Gulf Arab States and Saudi Arabia as an interlocutor with their many newly set up Development Funds. Many of us were impressed with Al Khalifa's personality and credentials and his acceptance in the Gulf region. This appointment finally did occur and he visited the area making a strong advocacy for their earmarking part of their development finances to children's projects. It was also a positive action to raise the profile of Sudan among the Arab countries.

Other happenings of note during 1975 !!

Our second year in Khartoum started out well. The office had finally gotten staffed with essential personnel, the programmes were going much better… except for the water project as mentioned above… and we had become quite accustomed to our life in the Sudan. Then a problem started arising; our NO Programme Officer Makkawi Makkawi, who I had big hopes for, began asking me for time off at some inconvenient moments. He explained to me that he had been elected Secretary General of the Youth Department of the country's sole political party, the Sudanese Socialist Union, and he was asked by the government to attend various meetings abroad. Wanting to accommodate him I initially accepted one or two such absences. However, I soon found out that he was also having meetings with party members in our office and so I had to ask him to refrain from doing that because we were a UN Agency and should not be involved in political affairs that impinged on our work. He promised to stop having such visitors in the office. However, the trips abroad kept coming up and I finally decided to warn him officially that if he continued such behaviour I would be obliged to not renew his probationary contract.

Things improved for a while, but then again he announced to me that there was a very important meeting in Moscow that the government wanted him to attend, and he could not refuse. It was then that I informed him that I also had no choice but to warn him formally that his contract would not be renewed when it expired at the end of the year. I really regretted this decision as I knew that I would again have to look for a replacement which was not easy. Also it would again disrupt our office capacities just when things were starting to move well on many fronts. But, I had to stand by principles and organisational requisites and so had to assume my responsibility as head of the office. I did not bother to inform the Regional Office or HQ thinking that this was a local issue and should be dealt with as such.

Oops! Coups muddy the waters

The general situation in the country was not at its best and there was much grumbling about the government's handling of both political and economic matters. On the morning of 5 September we were informed that a military coup had been launched by certain army factions and that they had occupied the national broadcasting station. All the UN staff were asked to stay home as there was some fighting going on. By noon we learned that the coup had failed, the leaders captured and the government back in control. It was a very tense moment but we also learned that 2-3 other abortive coups had followed this major one.

A rude homecoming....

Towards late fall Nadia and I took a short trip to East Africa for some rest and recuperation. When I went to the office on the first day of our arrival back to Khartoum, Viviane came to announce to me that some government police wanted to see me. I met the three officers who told me that there was something that needed to be corrected at Khartoum Airport regarding our arrival the night before, and that they had instructions to escort me to the Airport to sort things out. All this sounded rather funny since we had come in as usual and were cleared without any questions. I consulted Rasheid Beheiry but he had no idea of what was going on, but suggested that we go together to find out. That day the Chargé d'Affaires of Turkey was having lunch at our house, so I asked Viviane to inform Nadia that I might be late. At the Airport we were met by the chief of the security section, a rather impolite and pompous man, who immediately informed me that I was not to be allowed to enter Sudan last night. I could not believe my ears ! So I informed him in no uncertain terms that I was a Chief of Mission, duly accredited to his government and had been officially named Representative by UNICEF. He of course knew all that but insisted that his section had received orders not to allow me in, but that through some mishap the officers on duty the night we arrived had mistakenly admitted me. So, I asked, what is there to do, since I am here, and I have a residence and an office to run? He asked me to wait until he talked to someone and kept ringing a few numbers without getting anywhere. It happened that the President of Senegal was visiting Khartoum and most government staff were mobilised to greet the VIP guest, and so the security officer could not get anyone superior to give him instructions. By then both Rasheid and I got annoyed with his blustering attitude, so I told him to continue his contacts but that I was returning home as I had diplomatic guests for lunch and would no longer wait at the Airport. Also that I would contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clear the matter.

As we drove back to town we crossed Nadia accompanied by the Turkish Chargé d´Affaires who were driving to the airport because they were worried that I was late coming home. We spent much of the lunch discussing this strange turn of events, but a disagreeable sense was starting to be felt by both Nadia and myself. I later went to see the UNDP ResRep, Charles Lamuniere, who had replaced Cappelletti, and informed him about the day's happenings. He confirmed that he had not heard anything about me that could have precipitated such actions. A very seasoned UN staffer, he had become a good friend and jokingly told me, "this sounds to me like a bungled Persona Non Grata affair, and I hope you have not messed up with the President's wife !" I later went to the office and sent an urgent cable to the Executive Director and the Regional Director in Beirut informing them of the events.

The next few days were taken up with visiting all the Ministries with which we cooperated to try and find out more about my case but nothing came out of these visits, including the Ministry of Finance and Planning where Rasheid's brother Maamoun Beheiry was the Minister. The one Ministry which could have helped was that of Foreign Affairs, but they were busy with the state visit of the President of Senegal and I could not meet with any top officials. Meanwhile I received an initial cable from NYHQ where Mr. Labouisse informed me that he had summoned the Sudanese Ambassador for explanations and that I should not take any other actions until I heard from the Executive Director again. Needless to say both Nadia and I were in a state of anguish and uncertainty, but at the same time sensing that our tenure in Khartoum had soured considerably and that whatever happened we would not stay in a place which had treated us so unfairly. On the third day I finally saw the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, an urbane and old-time diplomat whom I respected a lot. He then formally confirmed to me that I was declared Persona Non Grata but would not give any other explanation. When I asked him how much time we had to leave the country, he smiled and told me, "there is no deadline, don't worry, but do it as soon as you can!". I duly informed HQ and ORDEM and asked for further instructions as to where we should proceed.

I also received a cable from Mr. Labouisse telling me that the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN had been to see him but could not give any further information. His advice was that we prepare for our transfer as best we could and to await further instructions on where we would be posted next. Apparently the Executive Director also informed the Ambassador that UNICEF and he personally were not pleased with this state of affairs so that he planned to freeze UNICEF assistance for a time and not appoint another Representative until things cleared up. I was quite proud of the manner in which the Executive Director had dealt with the Sudanese authorities in supporting me and my contribution to UNICEF activities in the Sudan.

Nadia, who is a very expeditious person, had meanwhile started preparing for our departure, by selling items we did not need, starting to pack others and generally organising our impending move even though we had no idea where we were going. Naturally, our next few days were also taken up by my visits to government offices and a string of goodbye parties. I did the best I could in briefing Uffe Konig who would become Officer-in-Charge as well as all the other staff in the office. Those were indeed very strange and strenuous days that we lived… on the one hand being deeply disappointed by the treatment of the Sudanese government after all the efforts I had made in the preceding five years and on the other, anxious about my future in UNICEF having been PNG'd in my first Representative post and not knowing where our next posting would be. This was a very unexpected and unusual denouement to our Khartoum posting.

Oh! I almost forgot, but among our friends and colleagues there was much discussion about how we returned to Khartoum that evening when there were orders given to the airport security office to not let me in. The most plausible guess was that the orders were issued in the name of Fuad Kronfol while the officer who stamped our passports greeted me, as usual, saying welcome Mr. Fuad Kronfli, thus confusing once more my real name with that of the Sudanese Kronfli family. This time, things went positively in my direction !!!

SUDDENLY, THE SUDAN AND ITS SUDD were history !

In about ten days' time, we had packed what we could and left Khartoum for the last time flying to Cairo on 26 November 1975.

EPILOGUE

A new posting, with promotion !

We were finally instructed to go to Cairo to await news of our next posting. I was able to complete writing the second Annual Report for 1975 and pouch it to NYHQ. It was finally decided that I would be transferred to New York to head the Middle East Section in the Programme Division. Mr. Labouisse decided to freeze UNICEF assistance for six months and did not appoint a Representative for the same period, making Uffe Konig the Officer-in Charge.

Both Nadia and I continued to have mixed feelings about our Khartoum experience. It had been a challenging but fairly pleasant posting but the PNG incident left a bad feeling in both of us. We often talk of our life, the people we met, the travels we took and other aspects with a sense of nostalgia mixed with much bitterness and unpleasantness.

One irony in this affair was that in my post as Chief of Mideast Section in NYHQ, I was overseeing UNICEF activities also in the Sudan. It was a delicate situation andTo avoid much controversy I opted at letting Uffe Konig manage things his own way without involvement from my side. To be fair he succeeded in both increasing and better implementing UNICEF projects, including a big expansion in the water project. To top it all he managed to convince HQ to purchase an aircraft for the staff’s use, something no other UNICEF office had. This allowed the staff to travel more frequently to project sites and to develop and monitor activities.

Very soon after landing in NY I was promoted in my new post. My vindication came the following year when Mr. Labouisse informed me that three Sudanese Ministers who were attending the General Assembly had been to see him and had officially apologised for the manner their government had treated UNICEF. SWEET !.

The original staff

From the original SCO staff, I continued contacts with Rasheid Beheiry for a few years, but that stopped after some time and I later learned that he had passed away. We sent condolences to his widow Nimat and daughter Sara. I am not sure what happened to Abdel Majid, our driver, but he must have continued working until his retirement. Saleh, our watchman, was old and I expect he passed away. The last I heard about him was from Samir Basta who was by then the Representative in Khartoum who told me that Saleh had asked him to give his greetings to me and said,"please remind him that he forgot his father's photo in the office!". I had hung up the photo of Executive Director Henry Labouisse in my room and Saleh assumed it was my father ! Viviane Sakkal, on the other hand, continued her education in Europe and the US. She came back to SCO as programme officer, then married Tom McDermott who was by then serving as the Acting Representative in Khartoum. They embarked on a long and successful career in UNICEF with Tom occupying senior posts and Viviane carrying out consultancies. I met them in their Delhi post and they visited with us twice in Montreal. These days Tom and I are among the Editors of the XUNICEF Newsletter and we continue to work closely together. Bill Reddaway was cut off from me for many years and I had no idea where he had ended up. Only recently we established contact again, thanks to the help of Tad Palac.

In my office with Viviane Sakkal, our principal Secretary.

The entire UNICEF Khartoum staff before our final departure from

Sudan. In the front row are Wael Kahhale, Supply Officer and Per Engebak,

our Water Project Officer, both recently joined the SCO

POST SCRIPTUM

*From recent research by colleagues I have learned that the first ever UNICEF aid to Sudan was in 1952. It involved $25,000 for a BCG vaccination project, presumably as one of those that UNICEF supported with the Scandinavian Red Cross Societies in the Middle East. The two year allocation was approved on 10 October 1952. This was followed by another $4,000 in 1953 to reimburse WHO for its technical support. The project apparently continued into the 1960’s.

*The Sudan was first elected member of the UNICEF Executive Board in 1963-1965 and again in 1988-1993, and 1998-2000.

*In 1972 UNICEF financed the participation of Professor Hafiz el-Shazili in the WHO/UNICEF Senior Teachers’ Course at the Institute of Child Health at the University of London. Professor El-Shazili was known as “ the icon of paediatrics” in the Sudan and occupied many other important positions in the area of young child care within the MidEast region.

*An amazing evolution has occurred in the size and shape of UNICEF involvement in Sudan. The current programme approved by the Board for 2018-2022 is $47,125,000 from regular funds and $193,925,000 from special contributions for a total country budget of $ 241,050,000 !!! I am told that there are about 450 staff members in the UNICEF offices within the country.

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