Description

Why did the newest country in the world – South Sudan – implode only two years after gaining its independence? In late 2013, Ambassador Nicholas Coghlan and his wife Jenny were in the capital, Juba, when the city erupted in gunfire and civil war pitted one half of the army against the other. During his talk, former diplomat and author Nicholas Coghlan will describe the ebb and flow of the war, the humanitarian tragedy, the scramble to evacuate South-Sudanese Canadians from Juba, and the current, well-meant but often ill-conceived attempts of the international community to mitigate the misery and bring peace back to a land that has rarely known it.

Speaker’s Biography

Nicholas Coghlan is the author of “Far in the Waste Sudan, The Saddest Country – On Assignment in Colombia and Collapse of a Country – A Diplomat’s Memoir of South Sudan”. In 2000, with controversy raging over the presence in Sudan of Talisman Energy, Ottawa decided to establish a diplomatic presence in Khartoum and Nicholas was assigned to set up and run Canada’s first diplomatic post in Africa’s largest country. Later, he was asked to lead Canada’s representation to the new Republic of South Sudan in 2011. After a sudden, violent ethnic uprising in late 2013 that led to the Canadian embassy closing, Nicholas and Jenny stayed behind, working from their truck outside of the Juba International Airport to help over 300 Canadians flee the country. As a result, many lives were saved and in June 2017 both were awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada.

Registration
CIC Member Price $30.00
CIC Student Member Price $15.00
CIC Young Professional Member Price $20.00
Non-Member Price $40.00
Non-Member Student Price $20.00
Max. registrants/capacity of room * 130

Contact
Paula Skippon | CIC.Victoria.Sec@gmail.com | (250) 995-8755