Foreigners flee the Ivory Coast

AIRLINERS continued to shuttle hundreds of trapped foreigners out of the Ivory Coast yesterday, as South Africa convened urgent peace talks on a crisis that it said threatened to destabilise West Africa.

The evacuations began Wednesday, when the US embassy and others sent convoys through the city to pick up foreigners. French soldiers in boats plucked others from the banks of Abidjan’s lagoons.

A French official has said between 4,000 to 8,000 of its 14,000 citizens wanted to leave.