Scorpions, snakes and unexploded ordinance

One of the joys of working for a large bureaucracy is the paperwork. So, before I started my trip to Chad, I had to complete a travel clearance form. I was being hosted by the Mines Action Group (MAG) and so I asked them for some details of the programme they had organised and where we would be staying. Accommodation would be pretty standard – we would be put up in various NGO guest houses most of the time which I much prefer to hotels. Except for one day in the field where we would be staying in a disused aircraft hanger where the risks included “scorpions, snakes and unexploded ordinance”. Needless to say, this caught the attention of the various people that had to agree the trip but, in the end, I was allowed to go ahead.

It’s the cold season at the moment which means the temperature has come down to a reasonable 34°C. It doesn’t feel so hot as it is also incredibly dry and dusty although this does mean I find myself drinking gallons of water. After spending much of the first day trying to organise meetings for the rest of the week, I went to see an MAF missionary couple for the evening – unsurprisingly we discovered mutual friends.

After one night in N’Djamena it was time to move onto the UN/humanitarian town of Abeche in the east of Chad. Abeche is the main base of the UN peacekeeping mission – MINURCAT – and is the jumping off point for many of the organisations working with Darfur refugees in camps in eastern Chad. It is a dry and dusty town which boasts half a dozen very smart new roads lit with solar powered street lamps. Given that the town has virtually no water or electricity supply, this modernity looks very odd but is, nonetheless, welcome when trying to get around.

We had a couple of days there and I managed a range of work related calls including visiting the Sudanese General at the cross border ‘mixed force’ made up of Chadian and Sudanese soldiers and responsible for guarding the border. This force has had a surprising amount of success reducing the levels of attacks and car-jackings that have made security in the area so bad in recent years and they struck me as an impressive, if not perfect, operation.

There were lots of wonderful photo opportunities in Abeche but, unfortunately, the locals, including the local security forces, are very sensitive about photos and it was forbidden to take any. Having had experience of this before, I decided discretion was called for. The best I managed was a photo of my accommodation and some shots from the air when we left on Saturday morning.

Abeche was a staging post for our real objective from this visit which was to fly further up north to where MAG were demining an area around an airfield on the desert route to Libya. The flight was chartered especially for the trip and we were only five passengers on a 12-seater Cessna Caravan. The itinerary took us first to Faya Largeau , a town of 10,000 where the pilot dropped us whilst he went on in the plane to check the airstrip to see if it was possible to land.

This gave us a couple of hours in Faya, a real desert trading town with many date palm groves constantly battling the sand threatening to overtake it at any moment. Fortunately the people of the town are less fussy about having photographs taken although it was still best to be discreet. We stopped off at a small café and drank the local sweet tea from glasses. For a town so clearly in the middle of nowhere, it was surprisingly busy with well stocked shops, presumably benefitting from being on a trade route to Libya. Lorries were being loaded up much as the caravans of the past would have been loaded up before setting out across the desert to the Mediterranean.

The plane came back with the report that all was fine and so we all set off again for Ouadidoum. As we flew north the sparse scrubland we had been flying over thinned out to rocks, dunes, salt pans and dried out river beds. The sense of desolation, even from the comfort of the aircraft 7,000ft up, was remarkable. I picked out a road – well, set of tracks – through the sand with an abandoned lorry miles from anywhere. It was a barren place indeed.

After only 35 minutes, a strip of black appeared ahead of us and this turned out to be the runway at Ouadidoum. We circled over it and I could see the old military aircraft hangers where we would be staying that night and then we landed on a very strange surface. Once we got out of the plane I discovered that the runway was made of metal sheets that had been laid down and linked together by the Libyan military when they had invaded in 1983 and set up a military camp here. The landmines MAG were clearing had been laid by them to defend the airfield.

We were introduced to everyone and given a tour of the hanger that was to be our accommodation and met the resident goat. Then it was lunch time and we had pasta and stew in the middle of the desert. It is not actually that hot even this far into the desert, mostly because there is quite a strong wind and, combined with the low humidity, the temperature feels quite pleasant. That said, it is easy to get burnt in these conditions so we waited a while before venturing out.

We then went to see the minefield where MAG was working. I had not expected to get so close to the live operations but, having been briefed, we were kitted up in protective gear and helmets and then headed into the minefield itself. It was an amazing experience. You could see the unexploded land mines in a line starting no more than a metre away and, on the cleared pathway itself there was markers to show where the next in the line had already been removed. The systematic way the mines had been laid and the care with which MAG proceeded to clear them showed just how painstaking the whole process was. The minefield is 43km long and is cleared in metre wide strips at the rate of about 25m per person per day. Once each mine had been defused the detonators and explosives were moved to safe places where we had the chance to examine the explosives, some of which dated back to the 1960s.

We then moved away from the current operations and saw where the battle had taken place in which the Chadians had recaptured the airfield in 1987. The campaign was known as the Toyota War. There were a number of destroyed military vehicles which had had to be pulled out of the minefield. We also saw where, after one vehicle had been removed, a mine had exploded injuring one of the mine clearing people.

We toured some of the other sites around the base such as where the dunes were encroaching and to the highest point around, about a dozen metres above everything else, and then headed back to the hanger as it got dark. I’m writing this outside in the bright light of a full moon as the cool breeze blows and the generator hums in the background. It is an incredible place.

On Sunday we continued our tour of the area and saw the ‘camel graveyard’. This was another stretch of the minefield but one which covered some scrubland in a wadi that attracted camels and other wildlife. We heard a number of stories of unfortunate camels that had wandered into the minefield set off mines injuring the animals and leaving them stranded. The value of camels in local culture adds to the problems. In one instance a camel driver had followed an animal into the minefield and ended up being killed himself. We moved onto other battlefield sites carefully stepping round the unexploded shells which littered the area.

And then it was time to go. There being only one pilot, I was offered the co-pilot’s seat for the return journey which had the double advantage of a good view and also headphones and a microphone that meant the flight was less noisy and I could chat to the pilot. The trip passed quickly as a result.

Back at the guesthouse in Abeche I had the chance to wash off the layers of dust and sand that had built up and empty shoes, socks and pockets of sand. Mercifully the camera seems to have survived the experience. I had just one call that evening with drinks at the Deputy UN Special Representative’s house. She served the most delicious hummus (she is Lebanese) and a Red Leicester type cheese which she produced from goodness knows where.

I’m now back in N’Djamena and have swapped my field clothes for a suit again. I have had a busy couple of days rushing from one meeting to another getting people’s views on what is happening, what is going to happen and what needs doing in Chad. It is just a snapshot but I have had a fascinating tour of Chadian politics and state of the nation. Overall it was an optimistic outlook. Despite appearances, Chad seems to be on an upward trend although it is a steep climb ahead and there is much to be done.