Written by Rodger Cook, General Manager of Security for World Travel Protection.
The first evacuation I was involved in was during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
I was part of a small team in charge of protecting a Belgian family in the capital Kigali. The father was the manager of a hotel, and he was there with his wife and two young children.
As a young soldier it was a great task; we were providing security in an air-conditioned hotel, eating all our meals at the hotel restaurant and maybe even sneaking a cold Castle lager during a bit of down time.
Even though for us the job had perks, we knew the importance of our task. If we were ever in any doubt, we only had to look at the mother of these two young children and see the stress and fear etched into her face.
As a 21-year-old, it was a marker that I was responsible to provide this person and her family with my protection.
The evacuation was completed very late at night with a reasonably large convoy, which snaked its way through the streets of Kigali, past the infamous Kigali Nights (nightclub) with dozens of United Nation vehicles parked outside and Swedish pop group Roxette blaring from the sound system.
The city was asleep as we drove up the hill to the Kigali International airport; still ridden with bullets and a hole in the roof, the airport was quiet, and the small guard force from the Rwandan Patriotic Army oblivious to our presence. I clearly remember being at the rear of the convoy standing in the turret of a Unimog truck wondering what would happen if we were intercepted by the Rwandan Patriotic Army, but we needn’t have worried.
The convoy made its way to the airport without any issues. We stayed there until the family left the country they had called home for years – the country they had seen go through hell and had still decided to live in up until that point.
Although this is a story from more than two decades ago, being in the business of travel risk management at World Travel Protection means I have dealt with many such situations over my career.
It’s when negotiations have broken down, threats have been made, and a situation has reached a point where people’s lives are at risk. It’s when you can no longer stay in your home or a place you are working or visiting, and things have gone wrong in a way that extreme actions need to be taken.
Sometimes an evacuation can last hours or days, sometimes it can feel like forever, but how we support and respond can dictate how safe and effective this action can be.
Neighbouring villages at war
For instance, when I was the Security Manager on a mine site in the Watut Valley in Papua New Guinea (PNG), we received reports of conflict in a neighbouring village.
The Watut people had come up and out of their valley and flooded into the Biangai towns and villages, intent on attacking as many people as they could and destroying homes and crops. By mid-morning we could see the plumes of smoke from the valley to our east as Biangai homes burnt.
We were in the middle of constructing a gold mine at the confluence of the Watut and Biangai rivers, we were at elevation, and it was cold, wet and amazingly beautiful.
But that clear and bright morning we were amidst what can only be described as an invasion.
PNG is a country near and dear to my heart for many reasons and the things that make it unique and a must visit also make it complex and admittedly a little scary at times.
The mine site had two landowner groups who made up the majority of the workforce and by the law of PNG had a financial stake in the operation. These landowner groups were the Watut and the Biangai.
On seeing and hearing what was happening, many of the men left the mine site to join in the attack or defend their family and their land. While some of the men left, we were still left with many people, mainly Biangai, who were not fit or willing to leave by foot.
By lunch time that day we had over a thousand men in war paint, carrying weapons and threatening our site with the intent of targeting any Biangais they believed to still be on our site.
The next four hours involved the use of multiple helicopters, the engagement of police, tribal leaders, employees, government and medical facilities. We risked having innocent people hurt and facilities destroyed.
The assistant general manager led the crisis response team and we worked every angle to get personnel and equipment to the right place at the right time. Our responsibility was to remove people who were most at risk while protecting the mine and its employees.
It was a tight time frame, we were fighting an evolving situation and asset availability, but we managed to land sufficient numbers of police to the mine site just as the Watuts pushed into the site. They pushed within 100 metres of my location as the last two aircraft left with the at-risk Biangais – the evacuation was complete.
The steps to a successful evacuation
Over the last 30 years I have evacuated individuals and groups from a myriad of countries under some very trying conditions.
An emergency evacuation is not a situation that anyone wants to find themselves in. Focussing on understanding the operating environment, investing in intelligence, and developing early warning systems is where the time and effort should be spent.
An escalation matrix or trigger warnings that have had significant intellectual rigour applied is the best way to help organisations identify changes in the operating environment and hopefully act in advance of a situation becoming untenable.
An evacuation plan that requires the user to grab multiple folders, a white board and a projector is not that practical.
Travel risk management and assistance providers are equipped with technology and the skills to educate travellers on any potential dangers. Through methods including alerts and actionable intelligence, companies such as World Travel Protection are able to locate and communicate with travellers.
Understanding the risk, protecting the people who need it most and deploying the right assets at the right time is what will dictate how successful an evacuation will be.
