Participants in DARFUR Planning Team Visit SHIRBRIG

In 2006 SHIRBRIG was asked by UN to assist DPKO in planning for a possible deployment to establish a Divisional HQ in Darfur, Sudan, as part of the transition of the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) to UNMIS. The assistance UNDPKO needed were 3 officers with the following specialties: medic, air operations and engineer (water purification) and would be part of the around 40 persons DARFUR Planning Team, in which they were the only military.

SHIRBRIG sent three Norwegian Officers: Maj. Kato Sandvik (medic), Maj. Atle  Hondeide (engineer) and Maj. Ronnj Hovland (airops), on a six month tour as part of this Darfur Planning team.

On January 11^th they came to Høvelte to brief PLANELM about their experiences with the UN DARFUR Planning Team and about the situation in DARFUR concerning AMIS and the work they did there. From their presentations we could understand that they had done a good job and were very pro-active in advising the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) about their experiences, such as security issues on the air field, use and set up of medical facilities. It is uncertain if these officers will continue with this work for UN, but they told us that it had been a great experience for them.