Foreigners evacuated from Bouake

At least 1,200 foreigners were evacuated by French troops from the mutineer-controlled town of Bouake in central Cote d'Ivoire on Friday, as the government announced that an attack against the mutineers was imminent. There were reports that local people in Bouake and the northern town of Korhogo, also held by mutineers since last week's uprising, were starting to flee. The government of Cote d'Ivoire has declared the two areas "war zones". Hundreds of people were reported to have demonstrated in support of the mutineers in Korhogo on Friday. Sources in Odienne, 771 km northwest of the commercial capital, Abidjan, told IRIN on Friday that the mutineering soldiers had taken control of the town at 19.00 GMT. The mutineers freed prisoners and took some gendarmes (police) hostage, the sources added. In Abidjan, relief agencies were trying to provide support to people displaced after the uprising. The United Nations-affiliated International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it was hosting some 131 Liberians, Sierra Leoneans, Togolese and Sudanese in a camp in the city. "Humanitarian agencies are meeting on a daily basis to follow up the situation," it added. In Bamako, the capital of Mali, the head of the Malian Shippers Council told IRIN that some 238 truckloads of perishable goods destined for the land-locked country were stuck in Cote d'Ivoire. Amadou Djigue, said most of Mali's goods passed through the port of Abidjan, making an annual turnover of US $208,455. Arrangements were being made to divert ships destined for Abidjan and with supplies for Mali to ports in Senegal, Togo and other regional countries. The Ivorian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abou Drahamane Sangare, visited Bamako on Friday to meet President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali. He told reporters the economic problems Mali was facing as a result of the 19 September uprising in Cote d'Ivoire would be resolved shortly. Meanwhile, a planned summit meeting of the heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss the Ivorian crisis has been brought forward from 5 October to Sunday, 29 September, in Abidjan. ECOWAS Executive-Secretary Mohammed Ibn Chambas was already in Abidjan holding consultations with the authorities there, ECOWAS stated on Friday.