Undersecretary General for the UN Department of Field Support Susana Malcorra visits the Bunagok site

The bases will provide support to local referendum officials as part of the overall technical and logistical assistance the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is providing to the referendum process in Southern Sudan.

The vote, which gets underway on 9 January 2011 and ends six days later, represents a key milestone in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Sudan’s second civil war.

UN Volunteers affiliated with the United Nations Integrated Referendum and Electoral Division will use the bases to provide assistance to the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, the national authority responsible for conducting the referendum. Each base will consist of six large tents, two sanitation blocks, one kitchen, a perimeter fence, a guard house and a safe room. All construction is being carried out using locally hired labour and materials that have been locally procured or supplied by UNMIS.

Construction of these bases is currently underway at Bunagok in Lakes State, and Akobo, Yuai, Pibor and Pochalla in Jonglei State.

Setting up the bases in as many counties as possible, including some of the most inaccessible villages of southern Sudan, has been one of the Mission’s top priorities in the run-up to the vote. Including remote areas is vital to providing the needed support to the referendum process.

UNOPS began work in Bunagok in October, at the height of the rainy season, using helicopters to bring in engineers and technicians, who arrived with nothing but tents, a high frequency  radio and a satellite phone.

The first delivery of tools and construction supplies came the following day, after the engineers hired a labour force from the village.  Thanks to a reconnaissance flight the UNOPS team was familiar with the terrain, and had spread word that a local workforce of forty was needed.  When the engineers touched down in Bunagok, waiting villagers were ready to work.

Despite rainstorms and extremely high temperatures the project has been a success and each base will soon be home to five UN Volunteers.