France and UN evacuate Ivory Coast

FRANCE and the UN yesterday launched the evacuation of thousands of foreigners trapped for days by violent attacks targeting French civilians and troops in Ivory Coast.

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

“The government is pushing to kill white people - not just the French, all white people,” said Marie Noel Mion, who was rescued in a wooden boat at daybreak and waiting with hundreds of others at Abidjan’s airport for a flight out.