IVORY COAST: FRENCH EXPATRIATES PREPARE TO LEAVE AFTER LOOTING OF FOREIGN OWNED PROPERTY
Record ID:
183730
IVORY COAST: FRENCH EXPATRIATES PREPARE TO LEAVE AFTER LOOTING OF FOREIGN OWNED PROPERTY
- Title: IVORY COAST: FRENCH EXPATRIATES PREPARE TO LEAVE AFTER LOOTING OF FOREIGN OWNED PROPERTY
- Date: 10th November 2004
- Summary: (W6) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (NOVEMBER 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF FRENCH TANK SECURING ACCESS TO ABIDJAN AIRPORT DURING EVACUATION 0.09 2. SLV FRENCH SOLDIER WATCHING ROAD 0.11 3. SLV ENTRANCE OF DEPARTURE HALL WITH FRENCH GENDARME STANDING GUARD 0.17 4. SLV AMERICAN EXPATRIATE ANNE MAXWELL-CHAUVET IN HALL 0.25 5. SLV FRENCH SOLDIER HELPING MAN CARRY TENT /BED FROM DEPARTURE HALL 0.31 6. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMERICAN EXPATRIATE ANNE MAXWELL-CHAUVET IN DEPARTURE HALL, SAYING: "They came in and woke us up. But I was able to get rid of them. Mainly because I am American, with my passport. I was giving dollars (to the looters) and the local currency, drinks. And they passed but they kept coming every fifteen minutes, ringing the doorbell. And the guardian (guard) was bringing them to the window and I was showing them the passport. As soon as we were saved by Ivorian gendarmes and some other Ivorians, the house was completely looted." 0.55 (W5) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (NOVEMBER 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 6. SLV FELIX HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY AIRPORT WITH FRENCH EXPATRIATES DISEMBARKING A BUS 0.59 7. SLV MAN AND CHILD GETTING OFF BUS 1.01 8. SLV FRENCH SOLDIER HELPING UNLOAD LUGGAGE FROM BUS 1.05 9. CLOSE OF MAN GIVING SLEEPING BABY TO HIS WIFE 1.13 10. SLV EXPATRIATES ENTERING DEPARTURES HALL 1.17 11. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SLEEPING ON FRENCH MILITARY BEDS IN DEPARTURE HALL 1.21 12. SLV SMALL CHILD ASLEEP ON CAMP BED 1.24 13. SLV AIRPORT HALL WITH EXPATRIATES ON CAMP BEDS 1.27 14. SLV EXPATRIATES PLAYING CARDS ON CAMP BEDS 1.30 15. WIDE OF DEPARTURES HALL 1.34 16. WIDE OF EXPATRIATES PLAYING CARDS 1.40 17. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (French) VITO GERARD, FRENCH EXPATRIATE, SAYING: "Today we are a little bit traumatised because we were roughed-up. We were evacuated in a tank, while someone was shooting at us. That was not easy." 1.50 (U6) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (NOVEMBER 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 18. DEPARTURE HALL WITH EVACUEES QUEUING TO CHECK IN 2.08 19. SCU SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH CITIZEN SAYING: "Everything was abandoned. I was rescued by a helicopter and taken to the French army base where I was warmly welcomed and they took very good care of me, despite the difficult situation. We were about 2,000 (evacuees) in the base. In conditions not always comfortable but at least secure, which is the main thing. We are lucky to be on the list of the first to go. But my intention is to come back, for sure because after 26 years in Africa I am more African than the Africans who beat me up." 2.39 20. SLV EVACUEE CHECKING IN AT THE FRONT OF THE QUEUE 2.43 (W6) ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST (NOVEMBER 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 21. CLOSE OF FRENCH COLLEGE WITH GRAFFITI ON WALL SAYING IN FRENCH "CHIRAC, IVORY COAST DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU" 2.48 22. CLOSE OF BROKEN WINDOW OF COLLEGE 2.51 23. VARIOUS OF DAMAGED COLLEGE BUILDINGS 2.55 24. CLOSE OF LOOTED EQUIPMENT OUTSIDE COLLEGE 2.58 25. WIDE OF COLLEGE 3.00 20. WIDE OF NAME OF COLLEGE ON SIGN/MURAL 3.02 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th November 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST
- Country: Ivory Coast
- Reuters ID: LVA4OW36NNWQKNAMJ055CXI5Q0WS
- Story Text: Mobs loot foreign-owned property across Ivory Coast
as pro-government protests continue and French civilians
flee the country.
French citizens queued at Ivory Coast's main airport
on Wednesday (November 10) to flee their former West
African colony as violent anti-French protesters massed for
a fifth day in support of President Laurent Gbagbo.
People queued in the departures hall and clutched the
few belongings they had managed to take with them. Some
rested on military stretchers, women tended to their babies
and children played with luggage trolleys.
More than 2,000 French and foreign nationals have been
sheltering in French and U.N. bases in the main city of
Abidjan, chased from their homes by anti-French mobs. At
least 30 demonstrators have been killed and about 1,000
injured since Saturday.
An American expatriate described how her home was
looted after she was rescued by Ivorian gendarmes.
"They came in and woke us up. But I was able to get rid
of them. Mainly because I am American, with my passport. I
was giving dollars (to the looters) and the local currency,
drinks. And they passed but they kept coming every fifteen
minutes, ringing the doorbell. And the guardian (guard) was
bringing them to the window and I was showing them the
passport. As soon as we were saved by Ivorian gendarmes and
some other Ivorians, the house was completely looted," Anne
Maxwell-Chauvet as she stood in the departure hall of the
airport.
Many seemed traumatised and some said there was no way
they would come back. French expatriate Vito Gerard
described his evacuation.
"Today we are a little bit traumatised because we were
roughed-up. We were evacuated in a tank, while someone was
shooting at us. That was not easy," he told Reuters.
Despite harrowing tales of evacuation, some French
expatriates vowed to return.
"Everything was abandoned. I was rescued by a
helicopter and taken to the French army base where I was
warmly welcomed and they took very good care of me, despite
the difficult situation. We were about 2,000 (evacuees) in
the base. In conditions not always comfortable but at least
secure, which is the main thing. We are lucky to be on the
list of the first to go. But my intention is to come back,
for sure because after 26 years in Africa I am more African
than the Africans who beat me up," one man said.
Crowd violence exploded on Saturday (November 6) when
the French army destroyed most of the West African
country's small air force after an Ivorian jet bombed a
French base, killing nine French peacekeepers and a U.S.
aid worker.
The air strike was part of an offensive launched by
Gbagbo's forces to dislodge rebels who seized the north of
the world's top cocoa grower in 2002 after failing to
topple the president.
The riots have blocked cocoa exports, vital for a
country which grows more than 40 percent of the world's
cocoa beans, and inflamed simmering ethnic tensions in a
major cocoa town.
French President Chirac said on Wednesday that Ivory
Coast's authorities must take responsibility for restoring
order.
There are well over 10,000 French citizens in Ivory
Coast although many of them have dual nationality.
The United Nations said on Tuesday (November 9) it may
evacuate some non-essential staff from Ivory Coast, where
there are nearly 800 people employed by U.N. and sister
agencies. The plans would not affect more than 6,000 U.N.
peacekeepers in the country.
In Abidjan, small clusters of youths clad in the
national flag ran to join anti-French protesters outside
the state television building, singing the national anthem.
Others manned checkpoints blocking roads with stones and
bits of wood.
At least 10 demonstrators were killed and hundreds
injured on Tuesday when bursts of gunfire ripped into a
crowd outside Ivory Coast's showpiece Hotel Ivoire, which
was then under the control of French soldiers.
Ivory Coast, which grew prosperous from cocoa, has been
on a downward slide since a military coup in 1999 tarnished
its reputation as an economic motor in an otherwise poor
region.
Gbagbo won power in disputed polls a year later.
Since the failed coup the country of 17 million people
has been cut in two with more than 10,000 French and U.N.
peacekeepers in the middle to keep the warring sides apart.
Despite pressure from African leaders, terrified
another bout of war could plunge the whole region into
violence, there has been little progress in talks and the
stalemate remains.
On Tuesday, South African President Thabo Mbeki met
Gbagbo. He said the president was committed to peace and
arranged talks with opposition leaders in South Africa for
later this week.
France negotiated at the United Nations in New York to
get approval for sanctions against Ivory Coast. Security
Council members reached broad agreement on an arms embargo,
and a travel ban and asset freezes for some individuals.
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