1st AFRICOM mission to Darfur extra heavy

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At Kigali International Airport, Rwanda, load masters from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., secure the DAF vehicle and water holding tanks onboard the C-17. This is the first load of five airlifts to the United Nations mission in Darfur.


1st AFRICOM mission to Darfur extra heavy
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 15, 2009

STUTTGART, Germany — When the first Darfur-bound C-17 hit the ground at Kigali International Airport in Rwanda early Wednesday morning, the U.S. Air Force’s ground crew had some extra lifting to do as they loaded equipment to support an international peacekeeping force.

The original plan was for the two U.S. Air Force C-17s to haul some 75 tons of oversized trucks and heavy equipment in support of the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in western Sudan, where years of ethnic strife has displaced millions of people from their homes.

"Since they’re flying the missions anyway, they loaded the aircraft with anything else that they (the peacekeepers) needed," said Eric Elliott, a U.S. Africa Command spokesman on the ground in Rwanda.

In all, some 150 tons of equipment will be delivered to Al Fashir, the main logistics hub for peacekeepers in the Darfur region of Sudan. Extra supplies added to the cargo included water purification systems and several thousand pounds of spare parts for vehicles.

The mission, coordinated by AFRICOM’s air component — the 17th Air Force out of Ramstein, Germany — started early Wednesday with the first C-17 landing in Sudan by late morning. By early afternoon, the aircraft was back in the air and bound for Djibouti to refuel.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60012