When safety is fleeting and fickle
The sun beating down mercilessly on the sand, the temperature is 50 degree Celsius, and humidity only five percent -- that’s the unforgiving Saharan climate for you in the West African country Mali.
A long convoy is moving forward slowly, piercing the desert sand and the near absolute lifelessness. In the front row, a Bangladeshi soldier can be seen wearing a helmet, sunglasses, and on top of his uniform around 20kg heavy bulletproof vest -- in this heat, standing waist-deep inside a state-of-the-art armored car.
In one hand, he is holding a walkie-talkie; with the other, he is tightly holding on to the hook of the armored personnel carrier (APC).
All the soldiers have modern weapons in their possession, but safety in this situation can be fleeting and fickle.
“You cannot take your eyes off the road even for a second,” said Maj Safin Ahmed, search and detection commander, whose description you have been reading so far. He is one of the 1,000 personnel from the Bangladeshi armed forces currently on UN peacekeeping duties in Mali.
Every time something suspicious catches his attention, Maj Safin utters “stop” in the walkie-talkie, and everything behind him freezes. The possibility of stepping on a hidden landmine or being hit by a rocket launcher or some other type of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) is very real. In fact, the West African nation is sometimes called the “world’s capital of IEDs”.
Tribal feuds, which have always been common, have taken a turn for the worse in recent years after several international Islamist groups turned Mali into their strongholds. The tribes, who have been at loggerheads with each other for centuries, have laid these IDEs almost everywhere across the country.
“The driver of the APC is totally dependent on me. My eyes are his eyes. The challenge is, every time I say ‘stop’, he literally has less than a second to react and step on the brake paddle. Even a minor communication gap may lead to disaster,” said Maj Safin while talking to this correspondent recently at the Gao Super Camp in Mali.
The road communication network in Mali is nothing like that in Bangladesh. In fact, there is no road in the proper sense of the word, let alone highways. Whatever roads there are, giant potholes make for an extremely bumpy ride.
Maj Safin continued, “It’s a huge pressure on your nerves. Everyone’s life depends on your vision. One mistake and everyone could be dead in seconds.”
Clearly, with such daunting obstacles on the road, it’s impossible to gain any speed. In August, a 740km journey on wheels to a remote conflict-prone region took them 17 days.
“Whenever I go on an operation, I can’t stop thinking about my wife and my parents. They also worry about me all the time. This is a war zone we are talking about. But that’s the life of a solider and we chose this life. Duty is above everything,” Maj Safin said.
They hardly have any time for leisure. But whenever they have some down-time, they have to stay inside the camps because of security concerns. Mobile connectivity is almost zero outside the cities; so, talking to their loved ones is not an option either. Add to that the unforgiving weather and dearth of options for recreation in Mali could be very depressing. That’s why, many peacekeepers suffer from anxiety and stress-related disorders.
“Stress is a major health concern in Malian camps. We try to boost our mood up by arranging indoor and outdoor games,” said Lt Col Amirul Hasan, senior medical officer, Gao Super Camp Level-1 Hospital.
“During the Oryx-2 operation a few months ago, I was disconnected from my family for many days. Back home in Bangladesh, they thought something terrible had happened to me. Their Eid was ruined.”
Everything a parent would not want their child to be around can be found in Mali in abundance -- scarcity of water, security threat, no connectivity, extreme weather and so on.
“We forget all our hardship every time we succeed in bringing peace to a conflict-prone area. The hospitality of the locals encourage us and gives meaning to our work,” he added.
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