Troops in war-torn Chad among first to cast ballots

IN TEMPERATURES of up to 55°C and in one of the most dangerous parts of the world, members of the Irish army were among the first to vote in the Lisbon treaty referendum.

Mostly drawn from the Western Battalion, the 450 men and women are part of the EU force in Chad, where their job is to make the area as safe as possible for the local people, the refugees and the aid agencies working with them.

They have set up camp at Goz Beida, about 70km from the border of war-torn Darfur, in the midst of a huge region where a quarter of the 300,000 Darfur refugees and about 100,000 displaced Chadians have sought refuge.