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Would this be Bushs Granada?
alledan
Member Posts: 19,541
BOUAKE, Ivory Coast, (Reuters) -- Well over 100 American school children have been caught up in a rebel-held town in Ivory Coast, three days after renegade soldiers seized a swathe of the north.
"We have approximately 160 U.S. citizens on this campus, mostly children," Michel Cousineau, business manager and security officer at the International Christian Academy (ICA), told Reuters from the rebel-held town of Bouake.
The government has said its forces are preparing to retake the town by force if the dissidents do not lay down their arms.
Cousineau said most of the pupils in the boarding school, many children of missionaries working across West Africa, were in good spirits despite their ordeal.
But a group of rebels caused a panic by shooting volleys of gunfire on the edge of the campus during the Sunday lunch period.
"The gunfire went off very close to the campus. We assume they were firing in the air, but it caused a lot of panic here.
"The children were eating in the dining room, and we dismissed them. We had already practiced a lock-down situation, so we got them secure in the six dorms (dormitories)."
"We're unarmed, and we've got guns going off around us," he said, adding that the group of rebels had a 50 mm gun with them.
The school has around 200 pupils. It was not immediately clear what the nationalities of the other children were.
Cousineau said he was unaware of any plans to evacuate the staff and children at present, either by U.S. embassy officials or by France, the former colonial power which flew in reinforcements to its standing unit in the main city Abidjan on Sunday to help ensure the safety of Western citizens.
"We are not moving away from the school without some kind of military escort -- whether U.S. or French," Cousineau said. "We have pretty good supplies -- at least for another week."
"I don't know what the international community thinks of us being here -- we would feel very happy and safe, even if there were some French or American troops who could position themselves at the school for our security."
PATIENCE IS : THE ABILITY TO IDLE YOUR MOTOR WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE STRIPPING YOUR GEARS..
"We have approximately 160 U.S. citizens on this campus, mostly children," Michel Cousineau, business manager and security officer at the International Christian Academy (ICA), told Reuters from the rebel-held town of Bouake.
The government has said its forces are preparing to retake the town by force if the dissidents do not lay down their arms.
Cousineau said most of the pupils in the boarding school, many children of missionaries working across West Africa, were in good spirits despite their ordeal.
But a group of rebels caused a panic by shooting volleys of gunfire on the edge of the campus during the Sunday lunch period.
"The gunfire went off very close to the campus. We assume they were firing in the air, but it caused a lot of panic here.
"The children were eating in the dining room, and we dismissed them. We had already practiced a lock-down situation, so we got them secure in the six dorms (dormitories)."
"We're unarmed, and we've got guns going off around us," he said, adding that the group of rebels had a 50 mm gun with them.
The school has around 200 pupils. It was not immediately clear what the nationalities of the other children were.
Cousineau said he was unaware of any plans to evacuate the staff and children at present, either by U.S. embassy officials or by France, the former colonial power which flew in reinforcements to its standing unit in the main city Abidjan on Sunday to help ensure the safety of Western citizens.
"We are not moving away from the school without some kind of military escort -- whether U.S. or French," Cousineau said. "We have pretty good supplies -- at least for another week."
"I don't know what the international community thinks of us being here -- we would feel very happy and safe, even if there were some French or American troops who could position themselves at the school for our security."
PATIENCE IS : THE ABILITY TO IDLE YOUR MOTOR WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE STRIPPING YOUR GEARS..