Europe needs more helicopters for Chad force

November 15, 2007 (BRUSSELS) — The European Union said on Thursday it had raised the troops needed for a planned peacekeeping force in Chad but still lacked helicopters vital for transport in tough terrain.

French General Henri Bentegeat, the head of the EU’s Military Committee, said he was confident the 3,700-strong force could start deploying in a couple of weeks as long as nations came forward with offers of helicopters and other resources.

“I am very confident we will get the key enablers. If we don’t, there could be some delay to the action,” he said of a mission to protect civilians in eastern Chad, one of Africa’s most violent zones, and northeast Central African Republic.

Bentegeat said at a news conference he would tell EU nations at meetings next week that the force still needed around 10 helicopters, a third hospital facility and other support assets.

“We have all the necessary manoeuvre troops,” he added of the core of the planned force.

Their mission is to safeguard refugees, civilians and aid workers who have suffered waves of attacks by Arab Janjaweed militias raiding across the border from Sudan’s Darfur region, where political and ethnic conflict has raged for four years.

Bentegeat said the mission in the harsh savannah and scrubland of east Chad would be the most demanding carried out by the 27-country bloc in Africa because of the terrain, climate and lack of infrastructure.

“We are confident we can do it, and do it well,” he said.

France is due to provide the backbone of the force with contributions from nations including the Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Sweden and Poland.

(Reuters)