- Title: SENEGAL: FOREIGN NATIONALS EVACUATE FREETOWN AFTER UPSURGE IN REBEL ACTIVITY.
- Date: 25th December 1998
- Summary: DAKAR, SENEGAL (DECEMBER 24, 1998) (REUTERS - NO RESTRICTIONS) 1. GV: RAF PLANE TAXIING AT AIRPORT (2 SHOTS) 0.15 2. GV/PAN/MV/PAN: VARIOUS OF SOLDIER AND CIVILIAN EVACUEES COMING OFF PLANE (4 SHOTS) 0.48 3. GV/MV/PAN: EVACUEES GETTING ONTO BUS (3 SHOTS) 1.28 4. MV: EVACUEES INSIDE TERMINAL 1.35 5. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) PATRICK O'BRIEN - DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION FOR BRITISH EMBASSY IN DAKAR SAYING "The reason the decision was taken to evacuate was because of the deteriorating security situation on the ground, we thought it would be a prudent and precautionary measure to actually get people out while we could.....the situation did deterioriate quite a lot - I understand from the people I have just spoken too that it's a lot calmer tonight than last night and the ECOMOG have retaken Waterloo but even so the situation is extremely volatile". 2.07 6. MV: MORE OF PEOPLE IN TERMINAL 2.12 7. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) BRITISH BUSINESSMAN GEOFFREY PEACH SAYING "There was a lot of tension in the air and basically we were happy to get out and happy to see a British man there with a gun to get us out of there" 2.24 8. MV/CU/GV/PAN: MORE OF EVACUEES HAVING PASSPORTS STAMPED (3 SHOTS) 2.48 Initials QUALITY AS INCOMING Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 9th January 1999 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DAKAR, SENEGAL
- Country: Senegal
- Reuters ID: LVA7DS9W3MUDYITC5WRBMF1SGW7S
- Story Text: Britain organised a Christmas Eve airlift of its own
and other foreign nationals from Sierra Leone's capital
Freetown on Thursday after an upsurge in rebel activity on the
approaches to the city.
Two British Royal Air Force Hercules 130 planes took
the 70 evacuees on Thursday from the former British colony to
the Senegalese capital Dakar, further up the coast of West
Africa.
The evacuees included Britons, Canadians, Germans, Irish
nationals and nine Italian priests.
"The British government has decided to evacuate those
mostly Europeans because of the deteriorating situation in
Freetown," Patrick O'Brien, Deputy Chief of Mission at the
British Embassy in Senegal, told Reuters.
"The British government is strongly supporting the
democratically elected government of President Ahmad Tejan
Kabbah," he added.
The airlift followed hit-and-run raids by rebel
infiltrators on Tuesday on villages on the main highway into
Freetown and advice from both Britain and the United States
that their nationals should leave.
The rebels consist of veterans who took up arms in 1991
and renegade soldiers who ousted Kabbah in May 1997, just over
a year after he won multi-party elections.
A Nigerian-led West African force drove their military
junta from Freetown in February but the rebels regrouped and
remained active in the diamond-rich areas of the east and in
the north.
Tuesday's attacks around Waterloo, the closest to Freetown
since the ECOMOG force restored Kabbah to power in March, fit
into a pattern of hit-and-run raids around the country.
Waterloo is about 18 miles (30 km) from the capital.
ECOMOG says it remains in full control, having secured the
approaches to the capital and the main highways to the
provincial capitals.The road out of Freetown reopened on
Thursday and residents said the city was calm.
Trucks arrived from the interior bringing staples such as
palm oil, cassava and sweet potatoes, easing shortages.
"Motorists, especially heavy vehicles who have been
transporting goods and local foodstuffs to the provinces and
Freetown can now travel without fear as all highways leading
to provincial headquarters towns are under military
surveillance, both air and ground," an ECOMOG spokesman told
Reuters.
ECOMOG soldiers searched all vehicles approaching
Freetown.
Defence officials in Freetown said that about 2,000
fighters from a pro-Kabbah traditional hunters' militia had
reinforced the capital, deploying at strategic points in and
around it.
But Washington said on Thursday it had suspended
operations at its embassy in Freetown and ordered all U.S.
government personnel to leave.The United Nations said it was
evacuating about a third of its 116 staff to neighbouring
Guinea and had brought the remainder from outlying regions to
Freetown.
The U.N.Security Council voiced concern on Wednesday at
the rebel attacks and atrocities committed against civilians
and reiterated support for ECOMOG.Nigeria, which spearheads
ECOMOG, flew in an extra 1,000 troops on Tuesday.
The rebels intensified their campaign after their veteran
leader Foday Sankoh was sentenced to death for treason in
October.He is appealing against the conviction and sentence.
Twenty-four former soldiers have been executed for their
role in the May 1997 coup.
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