As already reported, the federal army contingent of the Blue Helmet Mission in Lebanon is now led by a woman for the first time. Given the tense security situation, the ceremonial transfer of command took place in an air raid shelter (see photo above).
As Federal Army spokesman Michael Bauer announced on the short message platform X on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Ertl has transferred command of the Austrian UNIFIL contingent to Lieutenant Colonel Maria Eder. She is the first Austrian to take on a foreign mission of this magnitude. Under the current rotation, the Austrian UNIFIL contingent is expected to number 180 soldiers.
Ceremony “on a small scale”
The ceremony was led by German Admiral Richard Kesten, head of the UNIFIL naval group. The transfer of command took place “on a small scale due to the situation in the area of operations (…)”, the army spokesman said. As a result of the Israeli offensive against the Shia militia Hezbollah, approximately 10,000 UNIFIL soldiers repeatedly find themselves in the field of fire. Four Italian peacekeepers were injured in an incident on Friday, and eight Austrians were also injured in late October.
The Federal Army contingent is based at Camp Naquora headquarters and is considered the “backbone” of the entire force. The red-white-red soldiers are responsible for UNIFIL’s logistics and the camp fire brigade is also provided by members of the armed forces. Because local employees are not available due to the tense security situation, the soldiers have to take on additional tasks.
Source: Krone
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