Albania sends military unit to Chad

TIRANA, July 17. Albania sent Thursday 62 soldiers to Chad as part of a European Union mission to protect refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region sheltered in camps near N’djamena.
The soldiers will spend a year in the area, in two six-month missions, as part of a 3,700-strong force to Chad and the Central African Republic as part of a European Union mission to protect nearly half a million Sudanese refugees and Chadians displaced by the violence in Darfur and a rebellion in the east of Chad.
At the same time another unit of 112 soldiers left for Heart, Afghanistan, the third mission sent there.
Albania has small army units in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. The predominantly Muslim nation received an invitation to join NATO in April and expects to become a full member next year. (Tirana Times Staff)