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200 STUDENTS, STAFF TRAPPED AT MISSION COMPOUND IN C ”TE D’IVOIRE There is growing concern about the safety of 200 students and staff, most of them American, who are trapped at a missionary compound in Bouake, the second largest city of C ´te d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), the county’s second largest city with a population of 500,000. The compound is home to the International Christian Academy (ICA), a missionary boarding school with seven nearby dormitories. David Haag of Evangelical Baptist Mission, one of the partners that operates the school, says everyone in the compound is safe despite “sensationalized” news reports from sources such as CNN. “Rebel soldiers have been seen in various places right around the campus, patrolling the perimeter outside the walls,” Haag said. “But the people in the compound have not been the target of any hostilities. Rebel troops are patrolling the perimeter outside the walls.” Haag said there is plenty of food and water within the compound. “The power has been cut off, but they have a generator which they’re been running for short periods as needed. Safety is definitely a prayer request regardless of how the military perceives their level of safety at the academy. When you can hear automatic weapons being shot off outside your window, it’s no small thing.” ICA Director Dan Grudda wrote in an e-mail report that the situation is under control. “We can lock down this campus in one minute and account for every person here,” he said.

The national soccer teams from Senegal, Sierra Leone and Gambia are also trapped in Bouake. The hotel they are holed up in has little water and food left. Ivorian officials say 270 people have been killed and 300 wounded in insurgency so far. The rebels in Bouake and in the northern city of Korhogo appear to have ignored government demands for them to surrender in return for an offer of talks. Abidjan is now quiet, but in Bouake rebel soldiers said on Sunday that they had beaten off a heavy attack by loyalist troops. Meanwhile, French troops have reached the capital city of Yamoussoukro as they are seeking to protect French and other foreign nationals caught up in a coup attempt that began on Thursday. The convoy of dozens of vehicles left the country’s commercial capital of Abidjan late Sunday, hours after France had flown up to 200 reinforcements drawn from its other bases in West Africa. France describes the move as a “precautionary measure,” and it is thought the troops will set up a forward base to be able to stage evacuations, if necessary, from nearby Bouake which this morning still remained in rebel hands. Some 20,000 French nationals are thought to live in the former French colony. France has agreements with the country to help restore order if necessary.

Following a national address by President Laurent Gbagbo, hinting that the rebels had been aided by a foreign power, hundreds of foreigners’ homes in the Abidjan were burned down and thousands of people packed up and took to the road in search of safety. Defense Minister Moise Lida Kouassi told the BBC that the army’s only aim was to regain control of territory from rebels. Prime Minister Pascal Affi Nguessan offered an olive branch to rebels in a televised address on Saturday evening. Thursday’s uprising began with coordinated attacks on military installations, government sites and cabinet ministers’ houses in Abidjan and other cities and towns. The man the government has blamed for the uprising, Gen. Robert Guei (who seized power in a 1999 coup), was killed. Foreign news stations, including the BBC, have been taken off the air in the country. (HCJB World Radio/BBC/MNN)