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Hundreds of Irish soldiers have recently spent nearly five testing months in the volatile central African nation of Chad. Eoin Butlermet a few of them as they arrived home on leave

INCOMING MORTAR rounds, 13-hour working days and temperatures of up to of 55 degrees. It wasn't all fun and games for the soldiers of the Western Brigade last year, as they grappled with the task of establishing an Irish peacekeeping presence in Chad. The central African country has among the world's worst rates of life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income and corruption. To further complicate matters, eastern Chad currently hosts 285,000 refugees from the Darfur conflict (raging just over the border in Sudan) as well as 180,000 Chadians displaced by clashes between government and rebel forces.