France, U.N. Launch Ivory Coast Evacuation

[Khephra]

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- France and the United Nations began evacuating thousands of French and other expatriates Wednesday trapped at U.N. offices and a French military base amid days of anti-foreigner rampages in Ivory Coast's largest city, French and U.N. officials said.

As state television aired fiery calls to mobilize against the French, French troops combed Ivory Coast's largest city to rescue foreigners for evacuation, sending boats to pluck some French off the banks of Abidjan's lagoons.

"The government is pushing to kill white people -- not just the French, all white people," said Marie Noel Mion, rescued by French troops in a wooden boat at daybreak Wednesday, and waiting with hundreds of others at Abidjan's airport for the first flight out.

France alone expected to fly out between 4,000 to 8,000 of its citizens from across Ivory Coast, a French official said -- potentially the majority of the 14,000 French still in the former French colony.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top13nov10,0,1422465.story?coll=sns-ap-topnews

[Dufaeth]

1. Durrr

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