Jabou,

I have sent a correction to my earlier posting after establishing contact
with Ran Hotel.  The Team is safe and in good spirits and still
at the Ran Hotel.

You are right, the Bouake expatriate community is a sizeable one
with hundreds of American students whose parents are missionaries or
work for missions of different demonitaions.  The current American
Ambassador to CI happens to have been Ambassador to The Gambia in 1989-91;
it was at her request that the US is sending troops to protect Americans
trapped in the stand-off. The Americans do not seem to have revealed their
exact staging post but in my view the most logical staging post for them
would be Accra. The French are reported to be in charge of Yassoussoukro
airport and would conduct their operations from there.

In Bouake things are reported to be quite in some parts of the town.
However, according to reports, there has been fierce exchanges last night
with rockets being fired over school roofs. The school are not being
targetted per se.  Rather they happen to be situated in the line of cross
fire which makes it all the more urgent to get expatriates, footballers and
others evacuated.

The situation meanwhile is very fluid and getting complex with time. A few
moments ago, a growd of about 2000 demonstrated in front of the French
Embassy in Abdijan demanding that Ouatara be handed over to the 'Ivorian
people' and one placard accused the French of complicity in the recent
political events in Cote d'Ivoire.

Sidi Sanneh



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