At about 1:00 a.m. (Beijing Time) on July 13, emergency teams from POWERCHINA in South Sudan successfully completed the evacuation of 10 of their staff members, 39 Chinese staff from 14 different Chinese enterprises (including ZTE Corporation and Datong International) and three foreigners, following the break out of civil war in the country. Those evacuated arrived safely in Nairobi International Airport via a Fly SAX flight, marked the conclusion of the safe evacuation of the group’s staff and members of other Chinese enterprises in South Sudan.
Civil war broke out again in Juba, the capital of South Sudan on July 8, 2016. Downtown Juba saw heavy fighting between government forces who have declared allegiance to the country’s President, Salva Kiir, and anti-government armed forces who support Vice President Riek Machar. The armed conflict has resulted in the death of at least 278 people and the displacement of thousands since the fighting began. Project sites of POWERCHINA in South Sudan fell under the war zone. The personal safety of 10 Chinese staff (including four from the distribution network reconstruction project of Sinohydro Bureau 5 in Juba and six from the equator project at Sinohydro Bureau 13) were under serious threat.
After the outbreak of fighting, the overseas division of the group launched an emergency response mechanism for the first time in its history. They established an emergency lead team and an onsite emergency working team. The lead team adopted a 24-hour duty system and directed frontline personnel to make emergency responses in real time. The front and rear personnel cooperated with each other to develop a meticulous evacuation plan, guided by the South Sudan representative offices of the Eastern and Southern African regional headquarters to prepare for evacuation at any time and arranged overseas offices of countries neighboring South Sudan (Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya) to mobilize health care, foreign affairs, transportation and security resources, in efforts to support the evacuation.
After consulting Deputy General Manager Wang Bin, the overseas division of POWERCHINA and the emergency lead team of Powerchina International Group Limited issued a notice of emergency evacuation on July 12, according to the requirements of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The notice had been approved by leaders of Powerchina International Group Limited, Sinohydro Bureau 5 and Sinohydro Bureau 13.
After receiving the evacuation instructions, the onsite emergency working team received information that Fly SAX, a Kenyan airline, was able to provide charter services. In order to evacuate staff from other Chinese enterprises, the team quickly gave up on a plan relying on an SOS special plane which can only accommodate 10 people. The emergency team got in touch with Fly SAX immediately. It promised that POWERCHINA would be responsible for organizing the flight’s charter and came to an agreement with airline. Next, the on-site emergency working team published announcements as well as the contact information of the person who was responsible for the charter in the Wechat group of the South Sudan Chamber of Commerce, and designated a person to collect the name list and passport copies of the workers being evacuated. The team drafted a letter of commitment on taking the flight willingly and arranged security for each company from their project sites to the airport. The final name list of 45 passengers was determined at 2:00 p.m. local time. At 3:00 p.m., all those being evacuated gathered in the airport safely. Exit permit and check-in procedures were handled by a designated person in an organized manner. The plane took off on time at 5:00 p.m. The whole process of evacuation, from the initial chartering of the aircraft to the eventual check-in, took less than six hours.
The success of the evacuation procedures has reflected well on the capacity of POWERCHINA to deal with emergencies abroad, and fully demonstrated strong capabilities of central enterprises in respect to mobilization, resource coordination and integration in the event of a crisis. The overseas division organized the evacuation in an orderly fashion, made adequate preparation and took proper measures, indicative of the group’s capability in non-traditional security operations. The emergency working team faced a tense situation with calm and appropriate responsiveness, resulting in resolute decisions carried out effectively, and showing their strong executive force. The successful organization of staff evacuation is a manifestation of POWERCHINA’s spirit to care deeply about the safety of its staff, take on duties bravely and fulfill social responsibility actively. These qualities have won POWERCHINA high praise from international counterparts, friends, Chinese enterprises and mainstream media sources.
