Lebanon plans to evacuate citizens from Ivory Coast

BEIRUT | AFP - April 04, 2011

Lebanon is considering a plan to evacuate its citizens from war-torn Ivory Coast, Prime Minister Saad Hariri's office reported on Monday.

Hariri held talks with Jordan's King Abdallah II with a view to enlisting the help of the Jordanian contingent in the UN force in the troubled west African state "to protect the Lebanese community and help evacuate those who want to leave," a statement said.

The Lebanese population in Ivory Coast is estimated at around 80,000 and plays an important role in the country's economic life. On Saturday, Hariri contacted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over ways of protecting the population in a country where looting is rife as forces loyal to the rival presidents fight it out.

The French authorities have also reassured Hariri that its troops, stationed at Abidjan airport, were "ready to take the necessary measures to ensure that Lebanese planes could land with a view to transporting those Lebanese who want to leave the country", and were "ensuring the safety of Lebanese citizens", a statement from the French embassy in Beirut said. Already 167 foreign nationals, including French and Lebanese, have left the country, fearing for their safety and bound for Dakar and Lome.

On Sunday, 400 relatives of Lebanese living in Ivory Coast demonstrated outside the foreign ministry in Beirut criticizing what they called the government's "negligence."

"Those Lebanese who have a refrigerator have been looted, people are stealing food from houses, it is an indescribable tragedy in Abidjan," Ghassan Sbeiti, who left Abidjan five days ago, told AFP. "The Lebanese government should have sent us planes much sooner."

Source: iloubnan.info.
Link: http://www.iloubnan.info/politics/actualite/id/59298/titre/Lebanon-plans-to-evacuate-citizens-from-Ivory-Coast.