CHAD MISSION:A NUMBER of Defence Forces vehicles shipped to Chad for the European peace enforcement mission (EUfor) are out of commission after being damaged when being transported to the Irish camp by lcoal contractors.
A number of trucks had smashed windscreens, while other 4X4 vehicles have suffered snapped handbrake cables and other problems.
The damage occurred after the vehicles were poorly loaded on to the backs of trucks by local contractors and driven on dirt tracks to the Irish base at Goz Beida close to the Chad-Durfur border.
Most of the vehicles were transported on the back of trucks from the port of Douala in Cameroon, some 2,400km from the Irish base.
A spokesman for the Defence Forces last night said five 4X4 vehicles and two trucks were temporarily off the road due to damage caused on the journey.
However, he said with 150 vehicles having been brought out to the mission the numbers of vehicles off the road were low.
One unofficial source said many of the trucks driven by the local contractors were two-wheel drive cabs pulling 40ft flat-bed backs with 18 tonne MOWAG armoured personnel carriers loaded on board.
One source said the trucks were "completely unsuitable" for driving the loads for days on dirt-track roads.
Another source said some of the truck contractors, who are from Cameroon and Chad, did not have the skills needed to load and transport vehicles worth over €1 million each. One Mowag, worth at least €1.3 million, reportedly almost fell off a truck. It was unloaded by a crew of Irish soldiers who drove a 12-hour round trip to secure the vehicle.
An oil tanker which arrived in the Irish camp was also close to falling of the truck it was transported on, a source said.
A third source questioned why all-terrain vehicles were not driven from Cameroon by Irish troops rather than being transported on the backs of trucks.
A spokesman for the Defence Forces said a very large volume of equipment was shipped to Douala, the nearest sea port to Chad, from Ireland. The trucks arrived 12 days before the troops who would have been needed to drive them across country.
The value of the truck-transportation contracts was unclear last night, but is believed to have cost several million euro.
Meanwhile, some of the Irish troops who have been in Chad for almost a month told The Irish Times the clothing they have been supplied with is unsuitable for the mission and heavier than that issued to international troops they are serving alongside.
Temperatures regularly exceed 50C along the border with Darfur in eastern Chad.
The clothing may be reviewed by the Defence Forces when the rainy season begins in the next two to three weeks.