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CNN Live At Daybreak
Students Evacuated from Christian School in Ivory Coast
Aired September 26, 2002 - 05:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: They are safe and they are on the way home. About 200 students and staff, most of them Americans, have now been evacuated from a Christian school caught in that rebel uprising in Africa's Ivory Coast. They're flying out of the country today. The students were escorted out of danger by French troops.
Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has details for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly 200 Americans, including dozens of children, were driven to safety from a boarding school caught in the crossfire of civil unrest in the women and children nation of the Ivory Coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was OK. We're glad the French came.
STARR: French soldiers secured the Ecole Baptiste International Christian Academy (ph) early Wednesday in the town of Bouake and began organizing a rapid evacuation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you that we have loaded up in 17 vehicles and we are getting ready for departure in three minutes.
STARR: The schoolchildren, whose missionary parents are scattered across West Africa, waved American flags and made peace signs as they left the compound where they had been trapped for days. Nervous families back in the United States have been monitoring the situation.
PAUL HUTTON, FATHER: When your daughter calls you on a cell phone from under a table and says the bullets are flying overhead, well, you're not very calm. Your heart is pounding.
STARR: Rebel and government forces exchanged gunfire around the school since a coup attempt last week. Nearly 300 people have been killed across the Ivory Coast in the recent violence. The convoy took the students to the town of Yamasukro (ph), where the State Department was waiting to greet them and get them back to their families.
RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: They were there. They were setting up a staging center, a reception center. I'm sure there'll be medical care, counseling, help with travel, reuniting families, whatever else we can do for the people involved.
STARR (on camera): Several dozen U.S. troops are also at that staging area. They were not needed for the rescue of these students, but they remain on standby, ready to move in if the security situation deteriorates and the 2,000 Americans still living in the Ivory Coast have to be moved.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 26, 2002 - 05:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: They are safe and they are on the way home. About 200 students and staff, most of them Americans, have now been evacuated from a Christian school caught in that rebel uprising in Africa's Ivory Coast. They're flying out of the country today. The students were escorted out of danger by French troops.
Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has details for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly 200 Americans, including dozens of children, were driven to safety from a boarding school caught in the crossfire of civil unrest in the women and children nation of the Ivory Coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was OK. We're glad the French came.
STARR: French soldiers secured the Ecole Baptiste International Christian Academy (ph) early Wednesday in the town of Bouake and began organizing a rapid evacuation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you that we have loaded up in 17 vehicles and we are getting ready for departure in three minutes.
STARR: The schoolchildren, whose missionary parents are scattered across West Africa, waved American flags and made peace signs as they left the compound where they had been trapped for days. Nervous families back in the United States have been monitoring the situation.
PAUL HUTTON, FATHER: When your daughter calls you on a cell phone from under a table and says the bullets are flying overhead, well, you're not very calm. Your heart is pounding.
STARR: Rebel and government forces exchanged gunfire around the school since a coup attempt last week. Nearly 300 people have been killed across the Ivory Coast in the recent violence. The convoy took the students to the town of Yamasukro (ph), where the State Department was waiting to greet them and get them back to their families.
RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: They were there. They were setting up a staging center, a reception center. I'm sure there'll be medical care, counseling, help with travel, reuniting families, whatever else we can do for the people involved.
STARR (on camera): Several dozen U.S. troops are also at that staging area. They were not needed for the rescue of these students, but they remain on standby, ready to move in if the security situation deteriorates and the 2,000 Americans still living in the Ivory Coast have to be moved.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
