Some 2,700 tonnes of equipment in over 175 containers and around 100 vehicles and trailers will be loaded onto a ship at the North Quays in Dublin Port today, bound for service with troops in Chad with the EUFOR Chad/CAR mission.
Everything for the troops to live and operate for four months (with the exception of fuel) is being sent as part of the largest logistical move the Defence Forces has ever undertaken.
Weapons, armoured vehicles, ammunition, beds, air conditioning, toilets, a doctor's surgery, photocopiers, night vision equipment and enough food and water for 400 people is a snap shot of equipment that will be sent to Chad by sea overnight.
This is the equipment for the main body of 372 soldiers of the 97 Infantry Battalion, with equipment for the Army Ranger wing already deployed in February by air. It is expected the the ship, the MV Zeran, will sail overnight to The Netherlands.
There it will bring on board vehicles and equipment for 60 Dutch Marines that will work with Irish troops in Chad.
Following this, the ship will sail to Douala, Cameroon for disembarkation of equipment. MV Zeran is expected to arrive in Cameroon between 11 and 13 April.
The equipment will then be moved overland approximately 2,500km to the battalion campsite at Goz Beida in southeastern Chad, where a small village will be constructed.
Most of this equipment has been taken to Dublin Port, however motorists will see a convoy moving from the Curragh, Co Kildare, to the North Quays, Dublin Port, along the N7 to the M50 to the Port Tunnel this morning.
Empty military container vehicles will then be moving from the port back to the Curragh.
