EU foreign policy chief inspects EU force in Africa
May 6, 2008 (BANGUI) — The European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived here Tuesday for a first inspection of an EU force in the Central African Republic (CAR) and neighbouring Chad to protect Sudanese refugees who fled troubled Darfur.
Solana, EU high representative for security policy, was set for talks with CAR President Francois Bozize.
“The Central African Republic is very important, lying between Darfur (in neighbouring western Sudan) and the Great Lakes to which the EU has given great priority,” said Solana’s spokeswoman Cristina Gallach.
Tuesday evening the EU official was scheduled to continue to Ndjamena, capital of Chad, for talks with President Idriss Deby Itno.
On Wednesday he was to visit Camp Europa, the logistical headquarters of the EU force called EUFOR, before continuing to Abeche in eastern Chad, where the EUFOR command is deployed and where he was to meet representatives of the UN office coordinating humanitarian affairs and non-governmental organisations.
The Spanish diplomat was then scheduled to continue to Goz Beida in southeastern Chad, where an Irish battalion serving with EUFOR is setting up camp, to inspect the work of troops on the ground and visit camps housing refugees from Darfur where a civil war has raged for five years.
Last Thursday Frenchman Pascal Marlinge, working for the aid group Save the Children, was killed in an ambush as he travelled in a road convoy through the dangerous territory.
EUFOR lost a man in March in a clash with Sudanese forces when a French soldier apparently accidentally strayed into Sudanese territory.
EUFOR began its mission on March 17, already months behind schedule after lengthy negotiations within the EU over contributions, plus the rebel offensive in Chad against the capital Ndjamena which attempted to overthrow the regime of President Idriss Deby Itno.
The EUFOR mission was authorised under a UN Security Council resolution in 2007, aimed principally at protecting the Darfur refugees from Sudan in eastern Chad and northeast Central African Republic, as well as the internally displaced Chadians and Centrafricans, who number 450,000.
The European operation will also give assistance to the UN mission in Chad and Central Africa (MINURCAT), which has 300 instructors training local police officers to secure the refugee camps.
Solana’s sppokeswoman said EUFOR was expected to be fully operational in the next few weeks as planned, ahead of the rainy season starting in June which would complicate movement by land around the country.
Of a total expected force of 3,700, 2,379 are in place, including French, Irish and Swedish personnel.
The spokeswoman said that during his stay in CAR and Chad, Solana would hold talks on internal matters affecting these countries, including “security, the army and the legal system.”
(AFP)