The name Sydney Lawrence is well-known to all MINURCAT staff, and this, for a simple reason. Indeed, he has been in Chad as Chief CITS since the first months following the establishment of the Mission in September 2007. He left MINURCAT at the end of August 2009 to take, according to his own words, a well-deserved retirement, after nearly 24 years of service within the United Nations System.

Sydney laid his foot in Chad exactly on November 5, 2007. Since then, he was key in the set-up of what is today the base for MINURCAT's communications network.

During a farewell party in his honor in Abeche on 26 August, addressing his close collaborators, which he is leaving behind, he said, grappled with emotion: "I leave you dear colleagues, my brothers, my sisters, with sadness in my heart, but with the firm conviction that you will be able to complete the task, which was entrusted in us, that is, to equip MINURCAT with efficient means of communication. I am saying this, because I know that you have the ability to do it."

Sydney is a citizen of Sierra Leone.