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| Africa: Subsaharan | |
| French evacuations in Ivory Coast | |
| 2004-11-10 | |
France is to begin evacuating its nationals from Ivory Coast after days of anti-French demonstrations. The disturbances come in response to France's destruction of the Ivorian air force, in retaliation for the deaths of nine French peacekeepers on Saturday. They have also accompanied the renewal of the country's civil war, which the UN says has prompted 5,000 people to flee to Liberia. South African President Thabo Mbeki is making efforts to start peace talks. "It is on a voluntary basis. We are not going to evacuate all our French citizens because they are too many," French Embassy spokesman Francois Guenon told Associated Press. An aircraft was due to leave the French military base near the commercial capital, Abidjan with 270 people on board on Wednesday morning, French military spokesman Colonel Henry Auusavy told AFP news agency. Mr Guenon said they expected to evacuate up to 8,000 French nationals.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 Not just French. Anybody "white" is a target, and there can't be enough guards to protect you from mobs. (High tech only goes so far . . .) It doesn't sound exactly like a "defeat:" the French creamed the Ivorian Air Farce and seem to have control of the ground wherever they go. They just can't be everywhere, and have to plan accordingly. I'll be rooting for the French here: the rebels don't sound like a friendly group at all, and as for the Gbagbo supporters: from VOANews But many French nationals who have been living in Ivory Coast for decades said they were leaving for good. The French population which numbered about 40,000 during the 1990s has dwindled to less than 15,000 because of instability in Ivory Coast, the world's leading cocoa producer. Nutcases. Xenophobic flavor. Gbagbo has a lot to answer for: this used to be a fairly stable country. Hold on. Update from personal correspondance: "Things are calm here but things got pretty bad on the other side of town at the Hotel Ivoire. It has been badly damaged they say and 11 more people were killed. The French soldiers had to leave it to keep down the violence. The French are trying to calm things down and we heard that they were even saying that they would replace the Ivorian war planes that they had destroyed." Wow. Dunno if the rumor about the replacement offer is true, but it sounds pretty desperate. |
| Posted by: James 2004-11-10 3:10:39 PM |
| #5 When you get your butt handed to you by the Ivory Coast Air Force it's definitely time to regroup. |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-11-10 1:01:12 PM |
| #4 Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The French cabinet approved a decree authorizing the requisitioning of airliners because of anti- French violence in the Ivory Coast, as French aircraft evacuated French nationals and UN staff prepared to leave. Today's weekly cabinet meeting examined measures presented by Transport Minister Gilles de Robien as ``the situation in Ivory Coast necessitates the protection of French nationals and other foreigners in the country and to permit the repatriation of those that want it,'' the government said in a statement. If they are requisitioning planes, they must be planning for a major bug-out. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-11-10 12:52:09 PM |
| #3 Ah yes, another glorious defeat for the brave Phrench. Oh, BTW France, enjoy the "...all our French citizens because they are too many." and have it talk about actual Frenchmen. With your declining population and a hostile Islamic population on the rise, you are gonna be in deep doo doo in a decade. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2004-11-10 11:34:45 AM |
| #2 About bloody time. The French troops demonstrated long since that, given their numbers and rules of engagement, they would never be able to protect their nationals. The colonists who stayed this long were living in a fool's paradise. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-11-10 11:20:01 AM |
| #1 Oops! By the title I thought you meant the Prench were sh*tting themselves. My bad. |
| Posted by: Doc8404 2004-11-10 8:53:08 AM |