BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, Sept 26 (AFP) - West African footballers and other
foreigners trapped in a hotel in Ivory Coast's second city Bouake since it
was overrun by rebel soldiers last week were hurriedly preparing to leave
Thursday.
The lobby of the Ran, Bouake's best hotel, was strewn with suitcases,
rucksacks, a net bag stuffed with footballs, and portable music systems as
the guests thronged the lobby to wait for a signal to depart.
Teams from Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone who had come to participate
in the West African Football Union cup, due to have been staged between
September 18 and 28, have been trapped in the hotel since Ivory Coast
soldiers mutinied on September 19.
Ibrahima Mansaray, manager of the Sierra Leonean team, told AFP: "We
can't stand waiting any longer.
"Presently, the hotel is without water. We take the water from the
swimming pool for drinking and for the toilet."
He said: "The quantity of food has reduced and the quality has gone
down."
Mansaray said the past week had been traumatic and compared it to a
bloody event in Sierra Leone's now ended civil war, when rebel soldiers
stormed Freetown, killing and maiming people.
"One can compare it to January 6, 2000," he said, but stressed that this
was only in terms of shock-effect and that he had seen no violence.
Sang Ndong, head coach of the Gambian team, said the mutineers had
promised the footballers and other foreigners safe passage from Bouake.
"When the soldiers give us the green light, we will leave. They are
preparing the buses, some of the tyres do not have enough air. After that,
we will leave immediately.
"They will escort us to the outskirts of Bouake and from there the
others (government soldiers) will take us to Yamossoukro, Ivory Coast's
capital about 100 kilometres (60 miles) away."
He did not specify if their escorts would include French troops who were
due Thursday to begin evacuating French nationals and other foreigners
trapped in Bouake.
Ndong said his team had suffered a "traumatic" time.
"It was not traumatic in the physical sense because we came to no harm
although there was firing around the hotel. But mentally it was very
stressful being cooped vup just moving inside the hotel.
"But there is one thing -- we have been living together with all the
other people here for a week and have become like members of one family."
Ivorian Sinko Zeli, head of the abandoned tournament's referees,
said: "We hope the two camps (the mutinous soldiers and the government)
come to an agreement soon because if not it will affect sports in our
country.
"Without sports, our lives will be reduced to nothing."
Gambian journalist Malick Jones showered praise on the rebels.
"I want to stress that we have never been molested. I have never seen
any vandalism.
"There was only one incident when the rebels kidnapped (Ivory Coast)
Sports Minister Francois Amichia last Thursday. They entered our rooms
because we were on the third floor like him, and some people lost their
cellphones."
French soldiers were due to begin evacuating some of the foreign
nationals living in Bouake on Thursday.
On Wednesday, French troops freed some 200 children and staff, mostly US
nationals, who had been trapped at a boarding school in Bouake by fighting
between government forces and mutinous soldiers.
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