EU Chad force faces new delay

BRUSSELS – European Union plans to send a 3700-strong peacekeeping force to eastern Chad faced further delays yesterday after nations again refused to make up shortfalls in vital resources such as helicopters.

The first troops were due to have arrived by the end of the rainy season in late October. Fighting between rebels and government forces is already on the increase, disrupting humanitarian supplies to refugees from neighbouring Darfur.Yet efforts to launch the mission by early next month are in deeper doubt after a fruitless meeting of EU envoys on Tuesday, and diplomats said EU leaders may have to try to break the deadlock at a December 14 summit in Brussels.”Ambitions have not been matched by resources,” said one EU diplomat of efforts by ex-colonial power France to secure contributions to a force for which it will provide the backbone.”The concern now is that it could have to go to the summit and that wouldn’t look very good for EU credibility,” he said of a mission in remote savannah and scrubland which EU commanders say is the most challenging undertaken by the 27-nation bloc.Nampa-ReutersFighting between rebels and government forces is already on the increase, disrupting humanitarian supplies to refugees from neighbouring Darfur.Yet efforts to launch the mission by early next month are in deeper doubt after a fruitless meeting of EU envoys on Tuesday, and diplomats said EU leaders may have to try to break the deadlock at a December 14 summit in Brussels.”Ambitions have not been matched by resources,” said one EU diplomat of efforts by ex-colonial power France to secure contributions to a force for which it will provide the backbone.”The concern now is that it could have to go to the summit and that wouldn’t look very good for EU credibility,” he said of a mission in remote savannah and scrubland which EU commanders say is the most challenging undertaken by the 27-nation bloc.Nampa-Reuters