EU military advisor calls for Chad

by Independent Online

The European Union's top military advisor urged EU defence chiefs Thursday to fill equipment and logistics shortfalls for the bloc's mission to Chad to avoid delays to the force being deployed.

The force, to number around 3 000 troops, will help secure refugee camps along Chad's border with Sudan's Darfur region where fighting since 2003 has left more than 200 000 dead and displaced two million, according to UN figures.

"I urged the chiefs of defence today to provide the necessary means," General Henri Bentegeat, the head of the EU's military committee, told reporters in Brussels.

He said the mission still needed "transportation in the theatre of operations", including helicopters, "medical support" such as a third small hospital and "logistics assets".