Crisis Incident Analyst: KIMS International
Gerco was an Operational Emergency Care Practitioner with Advanced Life Support training and 29 years of experience. He has received a vast amount of medical training and acquired invaluable practical experience from 1994 throughout his career in the military as a medical support specialist. During that time, he served in an elite unit of the South African Military Health Services, 7 Medical Battalion Group. He was assigned to 4 & 5 Special Forces Regiments 1 Parachute Battalion as an Operational Emergency Care Practitioner. He also deployed operationally in support of the Police Special Task Force.
After leaving the defence force in 2004, he worked as a surgical product specialist and product manager for various medical device companies.
In 2009 he had an opportunity to go to Afghanistan and work as an operational medic for various security companies. He started as the Deputy Security Coordinator and Medic at a multi-million-dollar Kabul Power Plant construction site. He was promoted to Deputy Operations Manager at the same site until he left to go to Somalia.
In 2012 he managed the daily sick reports for the Puntland Maritime Police Force training base’s clinic.
Later in 2012, he was recruited back to Afghanistan to work as the Mobile Security Coordinator/Medic on the Gardez – Khost highway construction project. At the time it was classified as the most dangerous road in the world.
During 2014 he was transferred to Kabul for the position of Watchkeeper (Operations Manager) and also Medic. Again, he filled different positions with this contract and ended up as the Project Risk and Security Manager.
In October 2017, he signed a contract as the Site Medic for Expertise Consulting at the Ubari Power Station in Libya.
He was ambushed and kidnapped on 3 November 2017 by an armed group en route to the Ubari Power Station. He was held captive in the Libyan Sahara Desert for 8 months after which he was sold to JNIM, the al-Queda branch, in the North of Mali. He was held prisoner in an open-air primitive (no building, roof, or running water) prison by the Al-Queda jihadis.
He was released on 15 December 2023 after the Algerian Secret Service negotiated for his release.
Currently, he is busy establishing himself as a hostage survival- and terrorist specialist. He can help individuals develop the tools to build mental resilience. In September 2024, he participated in a training session with the Royal Dutch Air Force at their SERE School in Gilze-Rijen Airforce Base.
On 1 December 2024, Gerco availed himself to form part of the KIMS International Team, assisting in his specialized field of expertise.