Westerners evacuated from Ivory Coast
YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast (AP) – U.S. and French troops swooped in before dawn Sunday to evacuate Americans and other foreigners from an Ivory Coast city, landing helicopters in rebel territory to pluck out nuns, Peace Corps workers and orphans clutching stuffed rabbits. The French-U.S. rescue mission in rebel-held Korhogo came as West African leaders in Ghana debated deploying a West African force to strengthen Ivory Coast’s government against its deadliest-ever rebellion.
“A threat to Ivory Coast is a threat to all of us,” declared President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, which has scrambled fighter jets to Ivory Coast for a looming showdown.
In Korhogo, a northern city held by rebels since a bloody Sept. 19 coup attempt, the sound of helicopters breaking through the night early Sunday signaled rescue for hundreds of Americans and other foreigners pinned down by gunfire for 10 days and nights.
“Lots of gunshots – that was the scary part,” said Charley Campbell, a Colorado Springs, Colo., missionary evacuated with his wife and 5-year-old son. “We could smell the gun smoke.”
His son enjoyed the ride but “he didn’t want the helicopter to get shot down,” Campbell said.
French and U.S. C-130 military cargo planes ferried the Westerners to an airfield in Yamoussoukro, the Ivory Coast capital now used by Western forces as a staging point for rescue missions in the once-stable country.
U.S. soldiers lifted children through the side doors of the cargo planes while their colleagues stood watch with assault rifles.
Children clutching furry stuffed rabbits, nuns wearing white habits and white shoes, and Peace Corps workers in T-shirts milled about, struggling to get their bearings.
“There was firing, firing all the time,” said Cecile, an Ivory Coast worker at a Spanish Catholic orphanage evacuated from Korhogo with 14 children, most of them babies and toddlers.
“At night, we couldn’t sleep because of the shooting,” she said, comforting fretful orphans hanging on her and grabbing at her clothing. “And the children are afraid.”
Arnold Nestel of Riverton, Utah, holed up in a Baptist mission with other Peace Corps workers after shooting outside Peace Corps headquarters.
“I’ve only had five months in my small village. Not enough time to really make a difference,” Nestel said. “It’s really sad.”
The evacuation of Korhogo, the northern opposition stronghold, comes as Ivory Coast’s government repeatedly threatens an all-out attack to retake it and the larger, central city of Bouake.
Both cities have been in rebel hands since the bloody failed coup attempt Sept. 19 in which about 270 people were killed. The uprising was launched in Abidjan by disgruntled soldiers purged from the army on suspicion of disloyalty.
French troops led an evacuation of more than 2,000 Westerners from Bouake on Thursday and Friday.
Sunday’s daylong evacuation brought 34 Americans out of Korhogo. Other countries still were counting heads.
For the 2,000 Americans in Ivory Coast, “this is the last major evacuation” for now, said Richard Buangan, a Paris-based U.S. diplomat helping coordinate the rescues.
However, U.S. forces would remain on standby, he said.
Ivory Coast armed forces spokesman Jules Yao Yao said on state television that loyalist forces fired heavily on rebel lines north of Yamoussoukro – the closest clash to the capital yet.
The military spokesman defended Ivory Coast’s failure to carry out repeated threats of an imminent offensive to retake all of Ivory Coast’s north.
“The operation’s slow progress, which some have reproached us for, is caused by the desire of our forces to limit to the minimum all collateral effects,” such as civilian casualties, he said.
Underscoring the gravity with which the continent’s leaders regard the crisis in one of West Africa’s economic powerhouses, presidents of nine West African nations and foreign ministers of two others met to weigh military action or mediation on behalf of the Ivory Coast government.
South African President Thabo Mbeki also attended, calling it a show of solidarity.
Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, chairman of West Africa’s regional bloc, urged the deployment of a regional “peace contingent.” No leader has yet publicly proposed its size or mission.
“I will not compromise on democracy and the rule of law,” said Nigeria’s Obasanjo, whose military has participated in past West African deployments in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Mohamed ibn Chambas, the secretary-general of the West African leaders’ bloc, said, “We must send a clear message … that those days of illegitimate governments are gone. There must be zero tolerance for coups in West Africa.”