Kiltoom man overseeing UN handover in Chad

Kiltoom man Brigadier General Ger Aherne is currently involved in the handover of the UN mission MINURCAT to the Chadian government, a process that began in March of this year. Brig Gen Aherne has served as Deputy Force Commander of MINURCAT since March last year and is now involved in observing and assisting the Chadian army to take control of the country ahead of the winding down of the UN mission later this year. Speaking about what lies ahead, for both the UN and the government of Chad, in the next few months, Brig Gen Aherne told the Westmeath Independent this week: "The great challenge now with the UN going is that the government has said that it wants to take over fully the responsibilities of the UN in eastern Chad. The jury is out as to whether they have the willingness or the ability or the resources to do this." He said while the UN is happy that Chad is accepting sovereign responsibility for its country there are a lot of people who remain to be convinced as to whether they are capable of accepting this responsibility. "Both EUFOR and the UN are traditional armies in that they use a command and control system. For example in Abeche in command headquarters if I issued an instruction for certain things to happen that would percolate down through the system and there would be a response. These African armies don't yet have the sophistication of command and control for an order issued centrally to cascade down through the system with confidence that it will executed on the ground." And while challenging times lie ahead, the past 16 months have not been without their challenges for Brig Gen Aherne, who acted as the focal point for the humanitarian community in eastern Chad since first deploying to the central African country in March 2009. "My overwhelming day to day job has been interaction with the humanitarian community and to create the mechanisms and structures in which we can provide the military response to meet the needs of the humanitarian community and let me tell you that has been a challenge," he said. He explained that the humanitarian community is a challenging one to work with as it is not a homogenous group and also because, historically, the relationship between military forces and humanitarian groups has been distrustful on both sides. "They have very, very deeply humanitarian principles but I think this whole concept that has been developed over the last ten to 15 years of CIMIC, civil-military co-operation, is a work in progress and is making significant advancements." He said that two groups working so closely together in Chad has helped to tackle many of the prejudices they may have held. "Humanitarians will tell you publicly, and privately, in Chad that it has been, in their opinion, the single greatest example of civil-military co-operation that they have ever witnessed in their professional lifetime. It has been a model of how the civil-military business can operate and a model of how the UN Security Council can pass and pledge a Security Council mandate that has as its main thrust supporting a humanitarian community. But it hasn't been without its blood, sweat and tears. I have been demanding of them and they have been demanding of me," he explained. Despite the challenges involved in working with humanitarian groups, both the EUFOR mission and the MINURCAT mission have been successful, according to Brig Gen Aherne. "The one thing that EUFOR and MINURCAT have done is that they have stabilised the situation in order that the humanitarians can operate. Something that both forces are extremely proud of is that no humanitarian convoy or no escorted humanitarians under the protection of EUFOR or the MINURCAT force has ever been subject to attack so therefore the EUFOR and UN presence provided the determined presence in which the humanitarians can safely operate. The frequency of targeting humanitarian convoys has dropped to negligible proportions." Brig Gen Aherne explained that at the mission's height the force was escorting humanitarian groups 80 times a week and escorts never dropped to less than 250 a month. "The actual challenge of co-ordinating all of that was phenomenal," he said, Speaking about the success of both the EU and UN missions, he said: "I suppose one of the great boasts that we have is that the mortality rates in the camps are rising - the kids are not dying. "We're also creating a security umbrella in which the incidence of rape is deteriorating. The women in the camps go normally to a circumference of 10km from the camp to collect firewood and water but that 10km was their danger zone so therefore we provide the security umbrella in that intensive 10km zone in which they can, in comfort and in safety, go on their donkeys to collect water and firewood," he added. The force has achieved a lot in stabilising the situation in Chad and the challenge since March and for the next few months is to ensure that this does not fall apart. "We are now in an interim period in which we have handover responsibility to the Chadian authorities. We are in a contingent capacity. We're there for a period of about eight months as an insurance policy at the assistance of the Security Council and the international community in case things go belly up," said Brig Gen Aherne. "The great fear is that all of the time, effort and money spent since 2008, both by the European Union and the UN, will be wasted if this was to deteriorate. That's the fear and the challenge, but we're hopeful and confident. We have to encourage and mentor the Chadians because ultimately it's about sovereign nations accepting sovereign responsibility. The UN cannot be there forever," he added. And while Brig Gen Aherne will remain in Chad, along with 16 Irish colleagues, until he is summoned home, he said this week that the departure of the Irish contingent of troops from Chad in March has not gone unnoticed by the local population. Explaining the Ireland has made a significant contribution to the Chad mission, he said: "During EUFOR the Commander was Gen Nash and I'm the Deputy Force Commander so Ireland has had a significant contribution in Chad. Up until a few months ago we had one of the largest contingents there and to be honest with you the Irish are missed by the local population. Even in places like southern Chad your reputation goes before you." He said Ireland's historical relationship with Africa due to its missionary involvement for a number of years on the continent has helped how the Irish are received by Africans. "We should never underestimate our lack of a colonial past, how much that has mattered. We should never underestimate the esteem in which Ireland is held, particularly in Africa. An African said to me once we were the only nation that came to Africa, gave everything and took nothing and that is something that is in the hearts of Africans," he said. And as he prepares to return home later this year, Brig Gen Aherne said that the mission was not only successful in terms of bringing stability to the country, but the four-month, no alcohol model also proved to be a success, in his opinion. "It was one of the most physically challenging missions we ever had. The days before I was leaving it was up to 52 to 53 degrees every day. I have seen the fittest young men absolutely deadbeat at the end of the day. If you are driving through the desert for hours on end, even with changing crews, it's tough on the body. (But) Four months, no alcohol, no leave - it's a fantastic model. It even has a practical manifestation. I know married men and women who told me being there for four months is great because you only have to say goodbye to the kids once," he said. Brig Gen Aherne has spent recent weeks away from Chad, completing a UN senior leadership course, alongside ambassadors from around the world, high ranking UN civil servants and senior military and police officers from around the world. "I was nominated by the UN mission in Chad and selected by New York to undergo the UN's senior mission leadership course, which was hosted this year by Finland. It's a course that the UN runs every second year in order to create a pool of people from which they can hopefully draw in the future for their military, police and civilian leadership," he explained. He returned to Chad on Sunday and is due home sometime in the autumn, but does not yet know what appointment he will be taking up on his return to Ireland. A Cork native, Brig Gen Aherne lives in Kiltoom with his wife Marian and they have three children Captain John (a serving army officer), Sarah and Gerald (Jnr). Brig Gen Aherne joined the army in 1971 and has served at home, most recently, as Director of Training in Defence Forces HQ and previously as Officer Commanding 6th Infantry Battalion and Custume Barracks, Athlone. He has a host of previous overseas experience to the job having served in Lebanon (UNIFIL) three times, as a military observer in the Middle East for two years (UNTSO), in the Krajina region of Croatia with OSCE following the Balkan wars, in Kosovo (KFOR) and most recently in 2007 as the UN Chief Operations Officer in Liberia (UNMIL). He was the last Irish officer to serve in Liberia. He is heavily involved with St Brigid's GAA Club. He played minor and U21 football for Cork and captained the Cork Minor team that won the 1972 All Ireland Football Final. He holds a BA and an MA in International Peace Support Operations, both from NUI Galway where he is member of the Alumni Board.