Missionaries Join Ivory Coast Exodus
A Florida-based missions agency reported Friday that most of its missionaries have been able to leave the war-torn Ivory Coast, while the remaining few are expected to be out by Sunday.
A Florida-based missions agency reported Friday that most of its missionaries have been able to leave the war-torn Ivory Coast, while the remaining few are expected to be out by Sunday. Although missionaries of New Tribes Mission have not been targeted or victimized in the unrest that has recently wracked the Ivory Coast, the agency reports that safety of foreigners is uncertain and the missionaries have been unable to carry on their ministries.
"There's been a continued deterioration of civil order in Abidjan and also other parts of Ivory Coast,” New Tribes Missions' Nita Zelenak told Mission Network News. “It has reached a point where the safety of foreigners is uncertain and so, our missionaries are no longer able to carry out their ministries. So, New Tribes has decided that it's best that we evacuate the country."
Although for the most part, missionaries stay put unless the danger disrupts their work, Zelenak said the agency was forced to make the tough call this week after days of violent upheaval, which began Saturday, claimed at least 27 lives and wounded more than 1,000 in the Ivory Coast.
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According to ABC News, French military officials say several foreign women have been raped as angry mobs stormed their homes, and more than 2,500 foreigners have been evacuated. In addition, more than 5,000 Ivorian civilians have fled to neighboring Liberia, the United Nations refugee agency reported.
Currently, the French Army is evacuating foreign civilians from Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, and several thousand foreigners are sheltering at the airport. Meanwhile several European nations including Spain, Belgium and Italy are also evacuating their citizens because of ongoing violence.
NTM, whose church-planting efforts in the Ivory Coast comprise five ethnic groups, made arrangements with the US and French embassies to evacuate all of its missionaries from Ivory Coast by next week.
So far, all NTM missionaries in Yamoussoukro—who constitute the bulk of the mission's personnel in Ivory Coast—have been evacuated on a British plane to nearby Accra, Ghana. From there, they will proceed to their native countries.
Five NTM missionaries remain in Ivory Coast. Two are scheduled to leave from the coastal town of San Pedro on a United Nations flight at 10:30 a.m. local time Saturday. The remaining three NTM missionaries will leave the capitol city of Abidjan on the next available flight. All NTM personnel are expected to be out of Ivory Coast by Sunday.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Ivorian authorities restored water and electricity supplies in the north on Friday after they were cut off last week. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had expressed earlier their concern that lack of clean water would create a high risk of water-borne illness and that most hospitals and other medical facilities could not function without regular electricity supplies.
Authorities in the south are believed to have cut power in rebel-held areas before the government offensive began last week.
