Deployment of Sahel detachment: Dutch contribution
It was the Sahel detachment’s job to transport the FAO food aid from El Fasher to the remote villages of Umm, Kebkabya, Kutum, Kedadda, Malha and Millit in North Darfur.This was done in difficult conditions.
Self-sufficient convoy
The sand tracks and pitiful stone ‘roads’ were notorious, referred to jokingly by the Dutch as ‘stairs’. With the distance from base to destination sometimes as much as 220 kilometres, a return trip took around 5 days in practice, providing the conditions were favourable. Each convoy had to be entirely self-sufficient. This meant that each transport had to have 2 drivers per truck, a medical team, a mechanics team and a radio operator for communications with the base camp. For each man, there had to be at least 20 litres of water a day, as well as 5 day rations.
500 tons of food
The Dutch transport unit performed the distribution task for 2 months. The personnel left for home on 31 October and arrived in the Netherlands the next day. In all, 500 tons of food had been transported and each truck had been driven 4,000 kilometres.