European Union Force Chad/CAR
- Duration
- 18 May 2008 - 18 March 2009
- Military personnel
- 154
- Fatalities
- none
- Decorations
- none
Chad, a country with some 10 million inhabitants in 2007, gained its independence from France in 1960. From then on, the country was characterised by political instability arising from internal and ethnic divisions.
A constant factor was the division between the Arab Muslim population making their living from livestock-breeding in the poor desert areas of the north and the Christian-animist crop farmers in the relatively prosperous south.
Rebels
Rebel groups regularly made their presence felt. The rebellion in Chad was closely linked to conflicts in neighbouring Darfur (Sudan) and the Central African Republic. The rebels operated with impunity in the border area of the 3 countries.
Police mission
In particular the camps for refugees and displaced persons in eastern Chad were plagued by banditry and crime on a large scale. The Chadian police apparatus was unable to protect the population and refugees against bandits and criminals. The UN Security Council therefore decided to establish a UN police mission to train Chadian police officers for deployment in the refugee camps.
The Security Council made grateful use of the offer by the European Union (EU) to provide a peace force for the duration of one year, which would protect, inter alia, the personnel and facilities of the police mission outside the camps. The UN needed more time to build up its own ‘protection force’.