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Another checkpoint just outside
the village of Dibobly. This dusty road led northwards and had to be
patrolled daily to ensure that no hostile elements approached our
positions. The chicane barrier was put in place by us to slow down the
passing vehicles and give us some more time to react should an armed
rebel pick-up try to pass. We spent a total of about four weeks at
Dibobly before moving westwards to Duekoue to replace the 1st Company. |
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The small town of Guitrozon,
belonging to the city of Duekoue. The view is taken from a prominent
rock formation as seen in some of the pictures later on. Items of note
are the electric light poles that were never lit up and the strange mix
of almost modern brick-style houses and mud-and-straw shacks. |
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One of the many defensive
positions around the checkpoint christened "Calvi". This is
what the rebels would be looking at as they tried to approach. Our
bulletproof vests and Kevlar helmets are placed on a tree branch just to
the rear, ready to use at a moment's notice. |
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Checkpoint "Calvi",
looking southwards from the hotly contested hill-line. The photo was
taken much later when it was a little safer to venture out so far from
our positions, marked by two great bunkers in the road that housed heavy
machine guns, anti-tank missiles and gave cover to an ERC-90 Sagaie
armoured car. The road and the surrounding areas were filled with spent
cartridge shells, live RPG-7 rockets and other discarded military
material. |
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The bunker that housed the 12.7mm
Browning machine guns as well as emplacements for snipers with their
FRF-2 rifles. Just to the left of this bunker, behind a mound of earth,
is the ERC-90 Sagaie belonging to units of the French regular army. Its
90mm cannon proved quite useful in shelling the rebel attacks, alongside
the 81mm mortars based further down in the city itself. |
