Surviving on cold showers and boiled rations, the Irish Army Ranger Wing patrolled Chad for four months before the arrival of 400 Irish peace-keeping troops
CLOUDS OF RED dust rise from the wheels of a convoy of heavily armed 4X4s as it snakes its way through the village of Goz Beida in eastern Chad.
The men in the special reconnaissance vehicles (SRVs) are patrolling the area, on the lookout for armed rebels and bandits from Chad and Sudan. They have heavy machineguns, grenade launchers and anti-tank missiles. They travel in force to deter would-be attackers. The troops' faces are like leather after four months living in the unrelenting sun of the Chadian scrub.
These are members of the elite Army Ranger Wing, sent ahead to prepare for the deployment of 400 conventional Irish troops as part of the European peace enforcement mission (Eufor) in the Chad-Darfur border region. A few miles from where the Rangers patrol, the first of those 400 troops to arrive are busily constructing their new Camp Ciara base. It is named after the eldest daughter of battalion commander Lieut Col Patrick McDaniel. In Camp Ciara they have air-conditioned tents, toilets and showers. Their kitchen facilities are almost on-stream and a gym and recreation area will follow. Conditions are tough but bearable in temperatures of over 50°C.
For the Rangers, life has been more basic. The 50-man deployment arrived in Chad in mid-February accompanied by a small team of engineers and signallers, a doctor and three medics. Once in Goz Beida, they established a small "forward operating base" (FOB) beside a dirt airstrip. While the Rangers' sleeping accommodation is comprised of air conditioned tents, they have no other luxuries. Cold showershave been fashioned from a rubber water tank and piping. Toilets consist of a hole in the ground with plastic sheeting around them for privacy.
The Rangers have survived for the last four months on ration packs - pre-cooked meals in sealed foiled bags which are heated in boiled water. (The Irish Times subsisted on them in Goz Beida and would not recommend the experience.) The Rangers have a gym in one tent and have the look of men who use it regularly when not patrolling.
"We only use the FOB to operate out of," says one Ranger. "Most of the time we're out on patrol roughing it." Patrols in the countryside last for up to two weeks, in an area the size of Munster, and involve a minimum of 15 men travelling in five SRVs. Those on patrol live off stores of water and ration packs, sleeping in hammocks or "mossie domes", mosquito nets in the shape of small one-man tents.
The Rangers have 0.5 inch calibre heavy machineguns mounted on their Ford F350 SRVs, which fire bullets of a half-inch in diameter. Each SRV is also equipped with weapons that fire grenades and anti-tank rockets. All Rangers are issued with Steyr assault rifles, Sig handguns and hand grenades. Members of the conventional battalion will assume responsibility for the patrols, using Mowag armoured personnel carriers, when the Rangers return home in two weeks.
Though they are heavily armed, the Rangers say their mission is not a forceful one. "The weapons systems are quite aggressive," says the commanding officer of the unit's SRVs. "When we go home they will go home. They are a special forces footprint, aggressive and high profile, and they say 'we're here'. Like when we first went into Liberia, you have to put down a mark and show people you're not going to take any messing."
The Rangers, who cannot be named for security reasons, deployed to Chad in February as part of an initial entry force made up of special forces units from five European armies taking part in the Eufor mission. At full strength the force will number 3,700 troops from up to 18 countries. Eufor's "peace enforcement" mandate means the Irish troops can fire on armed groupings to prevent criminal acts against refugees, aid agencies or Eufor personnel and property. It is more robust than peace-keeping.
THE TROOPS WILL mostly patrol the border with Darfur in a bid to offer security to around 400,000 refugees who have fled fighting in Darfur and the Central African Republic, and internally displaced people from Chad.
But before that operation could begin the special forces were sent in to gather intelligence on militia movements and to display Eufor's strength to rogue elements. These, broadly speaking, fall into two groups: rebel factions who want to overthrow the Chadian government and groups of bandits from Chad and Sudan, known as janjaweed, who often steal livestock and kill locals before torching villages. Most of the villages visited by the Rangers on the border with Darfur were burnt and deserted, a reminder of the trouble that has flared in the region in recent years. The border is little more than a line on a map. It is not well policed by indigenous police forces or armies.
"The main problem is that the state is absent, it plays no role in governing," says a European aid worker at a refugee camp in Chad. Displaced people and refugees who spoke to The Irish Times explained how they had been driven from their villages by armed groups.
"They came into the village and fired at us so we ran," said Ahmra Ahmat YaYa, a 45-year-old Chadian father of 10. "After they took the cattle they torched the village and left us with nothing. It is not safe to go back." Djimie Mourssal, a 40-year-old mother of six, told a similar story. "We came with our children on our backs and took only what we could carry." She said life in the camp for internally displaced people near Goz Beida was safer than her home region but was still difficult. She complained of shortages of food and water.
In the past four months the Rangers have spent over 80 days on long-term patrols during which leaflets in French and Arabic have been distributed to locals to inform them of Eufor's mission. It hasn't been all plain sailing. A fortnight ago some 30 members of the Ranger wing had a chance encounter with 200 rebels armed with AK47s, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns, east of the village of Ade on the border with Darfur. A small Ranger team had gone into the village while their colleagues watched from afar. Just as the forward party reached the village the rebels "appeared out of nowhere", according to one source. The Rangers, hopelessly outnumbered, were not fired on and decided to stand their ground. Dialogue was begun through Chadian interpreters and, after a brief meeting, both groups parted company.
The Union of Forces for Change and Democracy (UFCD) grouping which met the Rangers is a splinter rebel organisation made up of men who took part in a major assault by 2,500 rebels on the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, in February and almost succeeded in taking the city from the government. Sources said they were well-educated and knew about Eufor and Ireland's involvement in it. They made the Rangers aware of their opposition to the Chadian government, led by President Idriss Deby, but expressed no desire to take on Eufor. It was the first time any Eufor troops established contact with any rebel grouping since the mission began in February. It was fortunate for the Rangers that the rebels were not hostile.
The youngest of the Rangers deployed in Chad is 22. He joined the Army four years ago and after just 18 months applied for the Ranger Wing. On patrol in Chad he mans a heavy machine gun in one of the SRVs and is a qualified sniper. He has also conducted covert surveillance in rebel hotspots.
"It's been different," he says of the last four months. "I wouldn't call it hardship; we're used to it by now. Back home we spend much more time than other soldiers on the ground doing long exercises in different parts of the country so we're prepared for this." While his parents and girlfriend are aware of the dangers, "they know the lads I work with are up to it".
ANOTHER RANGER SAYS that when the unit arrived in Chad they were operating without up-to-date accurate information about the security situation. "You log everything you see on patrol and compile reports. You also get information on the local chiefs and you compile a file on each one. The local people are a mine of information. Obviously a lot of it is one-sided and the source is often looking for something from you. So you report what you have and headquarters evaluates it. It's all passed on to the battalion coming in."
The Ranger wing, which numbers 100 members and is based in the Curragh Camp, Co Kildare, is now almost 30 years in existence. After the kidnapping by the IRA of the Dutch industrialist Dr Tiede Herrema in 1975, the government decided a special forces unit was needed. The Army Ranger Wing was born. It was formally established in 1980.
The selection courses involve a degree of aptitude testing and mental skills but the emphasis is on the physical. The applicants spend 12 to 14 days surviving in mountain ranges, often in very difficult conditions, on pack rations. A typical test would be to complete a 10km trek through rough terrain carrying 20kg kit bags. Anybody who fails to complete the task in a specified time is eliminated. Less than 10 per cent of applicants pass the course. Other tests of suitability include jumping off high bridges into cold rivers and abseiling from water towers.
"That part sounds simple but when you're up there and you look down, a lot of fellas simply can't do it and they're sent home," says one Ranger. "You have to keep going when you're absolutely bollixed tired, hungry and wet and you're expected to lead people into a combat scenario."
The Rangers initially trained with the US military and police special forces units in France and Germany. As the Troubles in the North settled the focus switched from anti-terrorism to a more traditional military role. Overseas deployments began with Somalia in the mid-1990s, followed by East Timor in 1999 and Liberia in 2003. The Ranger wing has filled a variety of roles on those missions, including reconnaissance and helping provide security for aid convoys. Its presence in any trouble spot is a deterrent to armed groupings destabilising regions or whole countries.
The Rangers' current mission to Chad represents the first time the unit has deployed as part of an international group of special force units. In Chad they can call for back-up from armed helicopters flown by the French military. French Mirage F1 fighter jets conduct daily surveillance flights across Chad, a country twice the size of France with less than 400km of paved roads.
The commanding officer of the Ranger unit has seen first-hand how quickly the security situation in Chad can deteriorate. He was in N'Djamena in February when the city almost fell to rebels armed with, among other things, rocket propelled grenades (RPGs)."The fighting was very intense, it really was. The rebels in the past were more raggle-taggle. But this crowd showed very high levels of organisation, command and control structures and tactics."
One of the Rangers' team leaders in Chad has been in the unit 17 years and is a veteran of its missions to East Timor and Liberia. "Timor was tough because we were on foot the whole time," he says. "In Liberia it was volatile at the start. Here the climate is hard but we're coping.
"Since Eufor arrived a lot of people feel safer. Some have already moved back from bigger cities closer to their homes to prepare to return home. Initially you have to look aggressive. This is Africa and people respect strength. But it's about hearts and minds too. We're here in the first stage of a process that will hopefully bring peace."