Americans flee homes that became fear-filled prisons in rebel-held Ivory Coast
Read and comment on this story from the Associated Press about 260 Americans, including schoolchildren, missionaries and their families, who were whisked from Bouake, where food is scarce, the banks are shut and water and electricity have been cut off since the rebels took over Sept. 19 amid Ivory Coast's deadliest uprising. Nine Peace Corps volunteers and four American families, loaded down with rucksacks and blue-and-white plastic bags, boarded a U.S. military C-130 plane and soared over the scrubland surrounding the airstrip in Yamoussoukro. Read the story at:
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Americans flee homes that became fear-filled prisons in rebel-held Ivory Coast
By CLAR NI CHONGHAILE The Associated Press 9/27/02 6:02 PM
Caption: French nationals at Yamoussoukro airport prepare to depart for the Ivory Coast coastal city of Abidjan on a U.S. Air Force aircraft on Friday. French soldiers reached a ceasefire with rebels and secured key roads to allow about 1,000 expatriates to flee a weeklong mutiny in the central city of Bouaké.
YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast (AP) -- Bundled onto cargo planes or speeding through the lush Ivorian countryside, Americans on Friday abandoned a West African city that had become their home but was now held by a disciplined rebel force and facing government attack.
"We live here. All my children graduated from school here," said Tim Downs, a Kansas missionary, his voice breaking after rebellion and gunfire cut short his stay in Africa of 15 years. "My house looks like I just went out for bread, and I'll be back in 20 minutes."
Downs spoke Friday outside an overgrown compound at the end of a rutted red-earth road in Yamoussoukro. Capital of this former French colony, Yamoussoukro became staging post for evacuation by convoy and helicopter of Americans and other foreign nationals from the rebel-held city of Bouake, 40 miles farther north.
In just 48 hours, around 260 Americans, including schoolchildren, missionaries and their families, were whisked from Bouake, where food is scarce, the banks are shut and water and electricity have been cut off since the rebels took over Sept. 19 amid Ivory Coast's deadliest uprising.
Nancy and Bill McComb, dorm parents at Bouake's International Christian Academy, related their ordeals to their family in Highlands Ranch, Colo., during the week -- telling them of hearing gunshots one day as their 7-year-old son played outside.
"Bill went to the dorm to see if he could spot him and saw him running for his little life through the dorm," mother-in-law Janie Hutton related.
"I wanted them out of there," Hutton said.
On Friday, nine Peace Corps volunteers and four American families, loaded down with rucksacks and blue-and-white plastic bags, boarded a U.S. military C-130 plane and soared over the scrubland surrounding the airstrip in Yamoussoukro.
They headed for Ghana, and away from homes that had become virtual prisons over the past week.
Those fleeing spoke of their sorrow, their fear for those left behind and their amazement that such a thing could happen in a country once renowned as a haven of stability in a region battered by brutal wars.
Ivory Coast was plunged into chaos after a failed coup attempt last week that involved a core group of 750 soldiers who were being purged from the military for suspected disloyalty.
Insurgents were quelled in Abidjan but took over Bouake, and Korhogo, the northern opposition stronghold. At least 270 people died in the first days after the failed coup.
On Thursday, the government said Bouake and Korhogo had become war zones and warned that an attack on Bouake was imminent.
Mormon missionary Howard Hatch fled Bouake with his wife after heavily armed French soldiers secured the main road out of Bouake on Thursday.
"We were told to get in our cars and leave," Hatch said at the Yamoussoukro airport, where a processing center for uprooted residents had been set up. "We hated to leave," he said.
The first U.S. evacuees -- children from the Christian academy -- flew to Ghana Thursday and away from a nightmare that climaxed when rebels broke into the school's compound, shooting automatic weapons as the children were crossing the campus after supper.
None of the children from the mission school, operated by Conservative Baptist International of Littleton, Colo., was hurt. But the incident sharpened anxieties, and fostered increasing calls for help, and on Wednesday U.S. troops flew into Yamoussoukro.
"At that point, our chief concern was the children," said Downs of Overland Park, Kan., who helped coordinate the American evacuation. "Once the children were secure, then personal security became a concern and then food and water became a concern."
Some of the children and school staff headed to Abidjan on Thursday, traveling in buses and private cars across rolling green hills, planted with bananas and palm trees.
The convoy of 22 vehicles arrived in the commercial capital Thursday afternoon, and the children were received at the International Community School of Abidjan, a large grassy compound with white-washed buildings in the lagoon-side commercial capital.
They were matched with host families, and then went home for dinner.
"It was a very happy time for many, many people who hadn't been able to see loved ones and didn't know what was going on," school director Rob Mockrish said on Friday.
The next big job is to sort out tickets and reunite the children with their families. Some will be returning to the United States and others will go to other West African countries.
Mockrish said the children would be spending the next few days "being kids."
Not all the evacuated Americans were planning to leave Ivory Coast. Hatch said he would stay and continue his mission in Abidjan.
Downs, who already lost everything he owned during chaos in Congo, formerly Zaire, said he was heading home to Kansas on Tuesday, for the birth of a new grandchild. "If I hadn't planned the trip. I wouldn't be leaving. I would have stayed in Bouake," he said.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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