First Irish Troops Return Home From Chad

The first chalk of Irish troops, consisting of 212 personnel, arrived back into Dublin Airport from Chad on Monday.

Speaking before their arrival home, the Minister for Defence, Tony Killeen T.D. extended his congratulations to the returning contingent and to all those involved in the MINURCAT mission: "This was probably the most difficult mission ever undertaken by the Defence Forces and the manner in which it was deployed and operated is testament to the effectiveness of the modernisation process implemented by the Defence Forces over the past number of years," the Minister said.

"I would like to thank all members of the Defence Forces who have served in Chad for their dedication, professionalism and hard work in contributing to a safe and secure environment for refugees and displaced persons.

"They follow a long and honourable tradition of commitment to international peacekeeping.

"It was unfortunate that we had to end our participation in the mission earlier than expected but that was a decision that had to be made.

"The Government remains deeply committed to international peacekeeping and, over the coming months, we will be looking at possible options for future deployments," he concluded.

A major logistics operation has been underway since the decision was taken in March to withdraw the main body of Irish troops from the MINURCAT mission.

This operation involves the use of road, rail and air assets to recover all personnel and equipment in advance of the rainy season, due to commence at the end of May and in early June.

The mission to Chad represented one of the most challenging logistical operations ever undertaken by the Irish Defence Forces. Chad is approximately twice the size of France, with little or no infrastructure.

The Irish Area of Operations (Sector South) is approximately the size of Munster and is located in one of the most remote parts of the country. It includes the border with Darfur (Sudan) and Central African Republic (CAR).

The Irish Camp in Goz Beida is almost 1,200 miles from the nearest seaport in Cameroon, and about 500 miles from the nearest international airport in N'Djamena.

Over the course of the deployment phase, 139 vehicles and wheeled units and 269 containers were moved to the Irish camp in Goz Beida.

Cargo was moved 9000km by sea from Dublin to Douala in Cameroon.

The operation also required 21 cargo flights, 14 road convoys and 8 rail convoys.

The task was made all the more difficult by the fact that there are only 380km of hard-surfaced roads in the country, most of which are concentrated around the capital city of N'Djamena. A similar process is now underway for the withdrawal operation.

The Irish camp in Goz Beida was built on a greenfield site in the desert.

All of the necessary life support systems were either flown in or built on site. Wells were drilled for water, sanitation and fuel systems were installed and communication and accommodation facilities were constructed.

Fuel, food and drinking water were all carefully managed as each had to be either flown into the local airstrip or transported on road convoys across the desert.

The Defence Forces have been involved in Chad since February 2008, when an Initial Entry Force (IEF), consisting of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) deployed to Goz Beida.

Since that time, six Irish Battalions and Force Headquarters personnel have served in Chad, in over 2,500 individual tours of duty.

The initial phase of the mission to Chad was conducted under the auspices of the European Union (EUFOR), which provided a military bridging operation for 12 months.

In March of this year EUFOR was succeeded by a UN military component, MINURCAT.

The Second Chalk of Defence Forces troops, consisting of 186 personnel, is due to arrive back in Ireland this Thursday.

Defence Forces owned equipment is due to arrive in Ireland at the end of July.