IRISH TROOPS serving in Chad will face a "heightened and prolonged" rebel threat when the rainy season ends there next month, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has said.
Mr O'Dea's warning comes 10 days after Austrian troops serving alongside the Irish were involved in a gunfight with armed elements, during which there was at least one fatality. The armed group also shot and wounded civilians.
Mr O'Dea said because most of Chad had been impassable due to the rainy season in recent months, there had been very little rebel activity. However, the Irish and other nationalities in the EU-For peace-enforcement mission did not expect the lull to continue.
"When the rainy season is over there will be a five- or six-month run until March [when the EU-For mission expires]," he said.
"We do expect things to be fairly active during that five- to six-month period. We expect quite a bit of rebel activity."
Echoing this view, Comdt Dan Harvey, a Paris-based spokesman for EU-For's Chad mission, told The Irish Timesthe troops on the ground were about to be "put to the test".
He said the recent incident involving the Austrian troops demonstrated the challenges for the near 3,700-strong multinational EU- For force. "We are anticipating a period of activity," he added.
Last Monday week in Am Nabak, northern Chad, members of the Austrian army's special forces unit came across a vehicle carrying wounded civilians. They told the Austrians they had been ambushed by armed elements.
When the Austrians went to the ambush scene they found a number of vehicles containing wounded civilians. When the Austrians identified themselves as EU-For troops, a group of armed men at the scene opened fire. The Austrians returned fire, killing at least one of the armed men.
The Irish area of responsibility around Goz Beida, close to the Chad-Sudan border, has already seen serious violence since the Irish began arriving there in April. Rebels attacked Goz Beida in June, with Irish troops opening fire after they were fired upon.
Mr O'Dea said yesterday it was still unclear what form of international operation would be put in place in Chad when the EU-For mission expired next March.
He said the 12-month EU-For deployment was only ever intended as a bridging mission until the UN was ready to send in its own peace enforcers.
Mr O'Dea believed the UN would either have its own force ready by March 15th to take over from EU-For or seek an extension of EU-For for a number of months while it finalised preparations for its own mission.
The UN is to make a decision on the matter by September 15th.
Mr O'Dea said any involvement by Ireland in a UN mission in Chad would need the approval of Cabinet and the Dáil.
If EU-For was extended beyond next March, Ireland's role in that extended mission would be put to the Dáil.
He was speaking at the Curragh Camp, Co Kildare, where he was meeting with children taking part in a 21-day therapeutic recreation course run by the Arts for Peace Foundation.
Some 40 children from Palestine, Israel, the Flemish-speaking area of Belgium and Moyross in Limerick city are participating in the course, which teaches mediation and peace.
