Citation
PARIS, April 10 (Reuter) - France said it had resumed evacuating its
nationals by air from Rwanda on Sunday and had sent troop
reinforcements to the central African country.
The Defence Ministry said 64 nationals were flown out of the Rwandan
capital Kigali to the Burundi capital Bujumbura on Sunday, bringing to
more than 150 the number of French citizens rescued since evacuation
operation Amaryllis
began on Saturday.
On Saturday evening an initial military flight carried 43 French
nationals from Kigali to the Central African Republic capital of
Bangui, marking the beginning of an international air evacuation
effort.
An undisclosed number of the 600-odd French nationals in Rwanda safely
fled the towns of Ruhengeri and Gisenyi by road toward neighbouring
Zaire or Burundi, the ministry said in a statement.
A new contingent of soldiers took off from Bangui for Kigali on Sunday
and will raise the number of French troops at Kigali airport and in the
capital to 460 men, including a surgery unit, the ministry said.
A company of soldiers was to leave the southwestern French city of
Toulouse on Sunday for Bangui to reinforce France's military presence
in Africa. Before the evacuation operation began France had about 8,600
soldiers on the continent.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
