The situation resembles the script of a film. Researchers blocked on an isolated scientific basis in Antarctica have sent an aid call to deal with a assault accused. The facts that currently take place at the base of Sanae IV, administered by South Africa, AP reports.
Last month, one of the nine team members present at the research base wrote to the South African authorities. According to this document that the local Sunday Times has obtained, it reports that “the behavior (which) has reached a deeply disturbing level” with respect to a male colleague.
He mentions the physical assault, as well as the death threats of Proferified. “I’m still deeply concerned about my own security and I constantly wonder if I will not be the next victim,” wrote this person who has remained anonymous.
A “climate of fear and intimidation”
The email sent also requires help to face this situation and guarantee the safety of the team, speaking of a “climate of fear and intimidation.”
The Ministry of Forests, Fisheries and the Environment of South Africa, which supervises these investigation missions, said in a statement on Monday, March 17 that the alleged assault had been reported on February 27 and that the remote situation had assumed.
According to this press release, the authorities speak “almost daily” with the members of the Sanae IV base team.
“The alleged author voluntarily participated in a deeper psychological evaluation, expressed regret and was willing to cooperate,” the ministry said. As CBSNews reports, he apologized to the victim and said he was ready to “apologize verbally to other team members.”
“A dispute about a task”
The South African authorities also said that the positions of sexual assault reported by the Sunday Times were inaccurate.
This Tuesday, the Minister of the Environment, Dion George, told CBSNeWs that the situation on the base remained “quiet” and that everything was “under control.” “I will remain in close contact with the base to make sure it stays like this,” he added, adding that a team “of psychologists and other experts” was in contact with the researchers of the base.
When asked what he could do to guarantee the security of the team, the minister said he was “studying the available options.” A legal process was launched to investigate accusations of aggression and death threats.
According to the BBC, a spokesman for the South African government said the assault had been launched by “a dispute on a task that the team leader wanted the team to carry out, a task that depended on the climatic conditions that required a change of schedule.”
A base of more than 4,000 kilometers from South Africa
According to AP, the Sanae IV base is home to nine people, including scientists, engineers and a doctor. They are there for a thirteen months, living in crazy districts during the hostile winter of Antarctica, whose six months of darkness begin in June.
The base is located on stilts near a cliff, surrounded by a glacial lid. Therefore, it is very difficult to access and is more than 4,000 kilometers from the coast of South Africa on which it depends. A ship that starts from CAP puts between 10 and 15 days to reach it. In addition, current extreme climatic conditions are more complicated by a trip.
According to local media, the next visit to a supply ship is scheduled for December. At the moment, the South African authorities have not decided a premature mission or any evacuation.
A “necessary adaptation”
The Ministry of Environment recalled that all members of the scientific team suffered evidence and evaluations before the beginning of their mission “to ensure that they could face” extreme nature of the environment in Antarctica “, as well as isolation and containment.
“It is not uncommon for people to reach extremely remote areas where the scientific bases are, an initial adaptation to the environment is necessary,” he wrote in his press release published Monday, ensuring that when Antarctica on February 1, “everything was in order.”
According to AP, problems have already been reported in 2017 in another isolated research base in South Africa, in Marion Island, also in Antarctica.
A report published in 2022 by the National Science Foundation, the Federal Agency that supervises the American Antarctic Program, indicated that 59% of women in the program said they had suffered harassment or attacks during research missions.
Source: BFM TV
