Polish contingent sets out for Chad

Polish contingent sets out for Chad

Created: Thursday, October 11. 2007

A Polish contingent, with soldiers come from Gliwice, southern Poland, have began a mission in Chad. The contingent’s commander, lieutenant-colonel Marek Gryga, is flying to Paris today, to establish precisely what tasks the Polish soldiers will be carrying out.

Lieutenant-colonel Gryga informed that all the soldiers are currently being vaccinated.

The vaccines will protect them from yellow fever, viral hepatitis, typhoid fever and malaria. Gryga stressed the importance of the procedure reminding that African climate is not conducive to Europeans’ health as well as the fact malaria kills more people in Africa than tuberculosis and AIDS together in Europe.

The Polish contingent will be part of a multinational mission, put together by the EU. It will be commanded by the French.

The minister of national defense Aleksander Szczygło said that the contingent’s precise departure date has not been scheduled yet, since preliminary assumptions were that it will be ready to set out at the end of October.

According to the minister, Polish soldiers will fly to Chad in November at the earliest and they will be combat-ready sometime around the end of the year. Szczygło stipulated, however, that the ultimate departure date will be a matter of a settlement.

146 Polish soldiers will go to Africa. The primary task of the EU mission will be to protect refugees from Darfur from attempts of genocide. Darfur is a province of Sudan.

The multinational contingent will be deployed nearby, on the border of Chad and Sudan. The mission is to last half a year. It will cost approximately PLN 70m.