Irish peace enforcement troops are getting acquainted with reality in Chad, writes Conor Lally.
THE HEAVY gunfighting at the weekend where Irish troops are based in eastern Chad will have served as a rude introduction for them to the volatility of the region.
It is the first time Irish personnel have been fired on since their EU peace enforcement mission (EUFOR) began four months ago, when the elite Army Ranger Wing was deployed with other international special forces units.
The bulk of Ireland's near 400-strong grouping of conventional troops now on the ground is in Chad less than a month. Already they have faced a much worse security situation than anything that arose during the three-year United Nations mission in Liberia.
Perhaps of most concern will be the speed with which the security situation worsened on Saturday in Goz Beida, which is less than three miles from the Irish Army's Camp Ciara base.
A rebel army travelling in columns of up to 100 vehicles, some with mounted heavy machine guns, were not challenged as they made their way almost 50 miles from the Darfur region of Sudan, over the border into Chad, and onto Goz Beida. They had reportedly been on the move for three days, but it was only when they brazenly drove into Goz Beida that they were challenged by the Chadian army.
While the Irish troops fired warning shots, after they were fired upon, there were no Irish casualties. It is the second time in as many months that the Irish emerged unscathed from a potentially very dangerous situation.
In early May some 30 members of the Ranger Wing were performing a long-range patrol in a village east of Ade on the Chad-Darfur border when they happened upon 200 rebels armed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.
Luckily for the hopelessly outnumbered Rangers, the rebels were not hostile and agreed to hold talks through the Rangers' interpreters.
While the Irish are undoubtedly well trained and well prepared for the difficult mission, they are operating in a region ruled by gun law.
A group of some 2,500 anti government rebels attacked the capital N'Djamena in February. A patrol of even 100 Irish troops faced with a fraction of the February rebel army would be almost certain to sustain heavy losses if properly engaged. The fact that the Irish now conducting patrols are regular troops rather than Rangers (who came home last week) heightens an already tense situation for the Irish Army.
When The Irish Times visited Goz Beida four weeks ago senior Irish military sources on the ground said they believed a fresh rebel assault on N'Djamena would take place before the rainy season. They believed any fresh assault would see the rebels travel from Darfur to N'Djamena via Goz Beida. This appears to have been exactly what happened at the weekend. It begs the question as to why the Rangers were allowed to return to Ireland last week rather than remain until the rains had firmly taken hold, making roads impassable. Once this happens in the next fortnight it will minimise the rebels' ability to advance to where the Irish are based.
The encounter in May between the Rangers and rebels raises serious questions as to the effectiveness of the much talked about air support available to the Irish on the ground.
French Mirage F1 fighter jets conduct daily surveillance flights across Chad. Despite these patrols the 200 rebels who met the Rangers in May were not spotted, even though they were travelling in a very large convoy of vehicles in a remote desert area where donkey and camel are the usual modes of transport.
Events so far in Chad have proven there is no shortage of armed rebel groupings in the region hosting the Irish. So far, none of these has opted to take on the Irish.