DAKAR, Dec 12 (AFP) - A group of around 100 Senegalese nationals was
Thursday evacuated from combat zones in western Ivory Coast and some 700
others were due to be moved to safety Friday, a Senegalese diplomat told
AFP.
   Ninety-eight Senegalese were evacuated Thursday from Guiglo, in western
Ivory Coast near the border with Liberia, and from Duekeou.
   Duekou is situated some 70 kilometers (42 miles) from Man, where Ivorian
rebels clashed last week with government forces, Alassane Cisse, the charge
d'affaires of the Senegalese embassy in Abidjan, told AFP by telephone.
   The Senegalese citizens are bound for Abidjan, the country's economic
hub, on Ivory Coast's Atlantic coast, under the control of President Laurent
Gbagbo's government.
   Another 700 Senegalese were trapped in Man, Cisse said. Some had left
the conflict-riven town "by their own means" while others were waiting for
a consular team expected to arrive in the town from Abidjan to oversee
their evacuation.
   "For the moment, we advise our compatriots to remain (in Ivory Coast),"
Cisse said.
   "We are trying to evacuate those who are in conflict zones and take them
to safety in Abidjan."
   A group of 75 Senegalese was evacuated from the rebels' headquarters in
the central city of Bouake shortly after fighting between rebels and the
army erupted on September 19. They returned to Senegal via Mali, Cisse
said.
   He added he believed that there were currently around 200,000 Senegalese
nationals living in Ivory Coast. Unofficial estimates put their number at
between 700,000 and 900,000.
   No Senegalese national living in Ivory Coast had "been bothered" during
the three-month uprising, according to Cisse.

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