Drum Cussac 24/7 Response Centre received a call from the corporate security manager of one of our Clients in the early hours of March 11th, 2011 requesting real time situational awareness, evacuation contingency planning and assistance for staff in the Bahrain capital, Manama. Upon receipt of the response task the duty manager communicated with our regional office in Saudi Arabia to start the process of identifying and planning evacuation options.

Following a further conversation with the client they changed their requirement from immediate evacuation planning to provide an on-site security consultant. This consultant would advise the client's in country general manager on risk and evacuation procedures based on the current and evolving situation in Bahrain. Drum Cussac's 24/7 Operations Centre would liaise with the corporate security manager.

By mid-afternoon (March 11th, 2011) Drum Cussac had identified, briefed and equipped a security consultant for the task and booked him on flights to arrive in Bahrain early morning the following day. Upon arrival he began his task of supporting and advising the general manager. By mid-afternoon and on request he had produced a plan to evacuate the dependants of the in-country staff. This was successfully completed that evening. Following further consultation with Drum Cussac, and the client, work started on an evacuation plan for the in-country staff which was successfully carried out on the morning of March 13th, 2011.

Having evacuated all staff, Drum Cussac recommended and agreed that the consultant should remain in country and provide real time situational awareness and daily reporting for the client. In addition he would visit the client's accommodation, offices and installations providing updates on their security and the security risk levels to travel between them. Based on Drum Cussac's information the client was able to re-deploy their staff on March 17th, 2011 which was earlier than anticipated thus minimising the potential losses to their business. Our consultant remained on task re-writing their contingency plans and providing advice and guidance on a variety of risk and personal security issues that had previously not been considered.

The daily written briefings that were produced by our consultant in-country were also used by a variety of additional clients as an intelligence barometer of the situation. Our understanding of the situation and the manner in which it was reported was used as a key part of their decision making process on how they would conduct existing and future business in Bahrain.

The variety of equipment provided for our deployed consultant consisted of a satellite tracking device, satellite phone and a BGAN (portable satellite internet terminal). Communication is vital and experience has taught us that host nation infrastructure is not always available or reliable.