DAKAR – A member of the European Unions peace-keeping force may have been found dead near the Chadnian border only days after the long-awaited force was deployed in Chad. The French soldier, one of thirty-seven hundred troops from fourteen nations, had been missing for two days. The soldier went missing when his vehicle strayed into Sudan, while he was on patrol in the town of Tissi in the far south east corner of Chad, along the border between the two countries. A second soldier was wounded in the incident, but escaped back to Chad. Sudan previously had expressed displeasure at Europe sending its troops to patrol near its border.
The European Union Force in Chad (EUFOR) was deployed in response to the influx of refugees from Sudan after the latest attacks in West Darfur began February 8th. Its mandate is to protect refugees from Darfur and the Central African Republic, and internally displaced people. EUFOR is also providing security for humanitarian aid workers and UN personnel assisting the displaced.
EUFOR was supposed to be deployed early in February, however they were delayed significantly by rebel attacks on Chad’s capital N’djamena.
For more information, please see:
allAfrica.com – EU Soldier Missing – 4 March 2008
BBC News – Sudan ‘finds’ EU soldier’s body – 5 March 2008
