Cathal O'Shannon was sent to the Congo in July 1960 to report on the arrival of the first major Irish Army contingent to serve as UN peacekeepers. He sent back this report as the main section of the Irish battalion was deployed around the enormous country. – JOE JOYCE
I ARRIVED in the Congo last Tuesday and, after spending two days in Leopoldville , I have now reached the Kivu province, where the Irish Battalion is stationed. Even in so short a time it has been possible to see many aspects of the chaos that exists there. The Congo is a land which is slowly, but surely, running down, in much the same way as a spinning top.
In Leopoldville, there are more than 75,000 unemployed because of the malfunction of Government and the mass exodus of Belgian administrators . . . Kivu province, where the Irish troops have now landed, is not inaccessible by African standards, but there are parts of it without road or rail communication. To the north, around Lake Edward and parts of the Albert National Park, communication is by light aircraft. Sparsely-populated by pigmies, it has more elephants than any other part of Africa, though there is a continual process of elimination by ivory poachers from across the border in Uganda.
Within the next few days Irish soldiers will be in Beni, to the extreme north of the province. . . .There are parts of the western side which are virtually impassable. Dense rain-forest covers this area, and it is possible to travel by tracks for 150 miles without seeing any inhabitants.
The object of the troops has been stated, but it can be summarised as a taking and holding operation. This vast area, three times the size of Ireland, is still in the hands of the Force Publique , which Irish troops will disarm. . . . The Irish troops have nothing to fear from the native population, nor, indeed, from the Force Publique itself. Wherever U.N. forces have appeared, the Congolese have handed over their arms without a great deal of bother. General Alexander, who commanded the Ghanaian troops when they first arrived, had only to have a few quiet words with the commander of the force in Leopoldville for him to hand over his arms. Since then, the force has been kept in barracks at Camp Leopold ll, and none has been seen on the streets.
Instead, Leopoldville is patrolled by camera-carrying Swedish troops and tarboosh-wearing Ghanaians, who are generally agreed to be the smartest-looking soldiers in the Congo right now. The 250 Liberian troops carry gigantic American .45 automatics, and the Moroccans have charmed the Congolese with the oddest military band I have seen yet. It is led by four pipe-playing N.C.O.s who produce snake-charming music which is occasionally drowned by the brass and the drums. The Congolese love it.
With the arrival of the Irish troops and the Malayans, expected in the next few days, the total U.N. force will reach almost 10,000.
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