Tense situation

Lebanon: Army command handed over to shelter

(Bild: x.com/Bundesheerbauer)

As previously reported, the army contingent of the blue helmet mission in Lebanon is now led by a woman for the first time. In view of the tense security situation, the ceremonial handover of command took place in a shelter (see picture above).

As Austrian Armed Forces spokesman Michael Bauer announced on the short news platform X on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Ertl handed over command of the Austrian UNIFIL contingent to Lieutenant Colonel Maria Eder. She is the first Austrian woman to take over a foreign mission of this magnitude. After the current rotation, the Austrian UNIFIL contingent will comprise 180 soldiers.

Ceremony "on a small scale"
The ceremony was led by German Rear Admiral Richard Kesten, the head of the UNIFIL naval group. The handover of command was "held on a small scale due to the situation in the area of operations", according to the army spokesperson. Due to the Israeli offensive against the Shiite militia Hezbollah, the approximately 10,000 UNIFIL soldiers are repeatedly coming under fire. Only on Friday, four Italian blue helmets were injured in an incident; at the end of October, eight Austrians were also hit. 

The Austrian army contingent is stationed at the Camp Naquora headquarters and is regarded as the "backbone" of the entire force. The red-white-red soldiers are responsible for the logistics of UNIFIL, and the camp fire department is also supervised by members of the Austrian Armed Forces. Because local staff are absent due to the tense security situation, the soldiers have to take on additional tasks.