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Covenanters Safely Exit Embattled Bangui
BANGUI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (October 28, 2002) - A group of Evangelical
Covenant Church missionaries and other visitors from the United States have
safely left Bangui following three days of intense fighting on the
outskirts of the city, Covenant News Service has learned.
Fighting broke out mid-afternoon last Friday in Bangui following earlier
attacks by rebel forces in the northern communities of Bogangolo and
Damara, although no Covenant missionaries are stationed in those areas.
Libyan-backed loyalist forces battled with rockets and machine guns on
Saturday to push back the assaults by rebels linked to a former army chief
seeking to overthrow the government of elected President Ange Felix
Patasse.
The Covenant missionaries had hoped to leave Bangui Sunday morning, but the
scheduled Air France flight was cancelled due to the unsafe conditions,
said Peter Ekstrand, who with wife, Cindy, serve as Africa regional
coordinators for the Department of World Mission.
"Visitors from upcountry CAR and from the United States, who were staying
at two guest houses in Bangui, were able to drive out of Bangui around noon
today through an alternate route," said Keith Gustafson, Africa country
coordinator. "The Boda-Yaloke section was rough with some stops at rain
barriers and one flat tire," one email report stated.
Good news in northeastern Congo came last week in the form of 18 metric
tons of clothing and supplies delivered to fleeing Congolese by the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The shipment included used clothing,
soap, waxed cloth, medicine and fuel, according to Ekstrand. UNICEF had
discovered that more than 2,000 families, including some 14,000
individuals, had fled into the forests of northeastern Congo and had no
clothing to wear.
More information will be posted to this Covenant news site as it becomes
available.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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