UNIFIL’s Sector East Headquarters carried out the “East Angel” exercise last week in order to evaluate the reaction of its components during emergency situations requiring casualty evacuation.

The exercise, carried out on 20 December, aimed to train the military assets under the Sector East Command to properly react in case of emergency situations.

In the course of the exercise, a situation was simulated in which the front tyre of a UN vehicle deflated causing the vehicle to skid beyond the control of the driver and resulting in an accident leaving four UN peacekeepers injured – one of them sustaining serious injuries. During the exercise, the participating peacekeepers followed standard CASEVAC (casualty evacuation) and MEDEVAC (medical evacuation) procedures, including alert procedure status, flow of information, communication capability and reaction time.

At the end of the exercise, Sector East Chief of Staff Colonel Francisco Javier Vilchez Contreras noted that all participants from the Nepalese Battalion, military police and the Sector HQ displayed an excellent level of preparation and reacted efficiently. “The response was done professionally with good capabilities such as technical, tactical and operational skills,” he added.