Humanitarian crisis in S Sudan

Nick Coghlan was educated at Oxford University (UK) and, after a spell teaching in Argentina, immigrated to Canada with his wife Jenny in 1981. He taught at Shawnigan Lake School (Vancouver Island) and St Michael's University School (Victoria) before joining the Canadian foreign service in 1991.

Nick spent most of his foreign service career abroad: he was posted to Mexico City, Bogota (Colombia), Khartoum (Sudan), Cape Town (South Africa) and Islamabad (Pakistan) before concluding his career as Canada's first resident Ambassador to the newly-created Republic of South Sudan (2012-16).

Nick and Jenny (who was at the time working for the Japanese governmental development agency) were alone at the small Canadian Embassy in Juba when civil war broke out in Juba in December 2013; in recognition of their role in evacuating Canadians they were awarded Meritorious Service Crosses by the Governor General of Canada.  

Nick and Jenny are also accomplished long-distance sailors: from 1985-89 they circumnavigated the world, from and to Maple Bay BC, in their 27 foot sailboat, and only this year they concluded an equally lengthy voyage that began in Cape Town and took them via Cape Horn to New Zealand, Japan and Alaska - and now to salt Spring island BC. 

Nick is the author of four books; his latest, "Collapse of a Country" (MQUP), describes his experiences in South Sudan and was published in September 2017.

Nick will describe what happened in South Sudan in December 2013 - and why - and then explore the challenges of delivering aid and development in the context of one of the severest humanitarian crises of our day, which has seen more than 90 humanitarians killed in four years as the conflict in the country deepens.