The Foreign Service Journal, February 2003

were similar to those that Deb reported: “I remember talking to one American, as he, his wife and their three girls huddled in their hallway. I could hear the shoot- ing and firing in the background. They had no water or electricity and bullets were lodging in the walls of their home. Some of the Americans had corpses in their yards. And I had to keep telling them to remain where they were, that we were working on it. We were trying to get them out. And they were scared, disillusioned and frustrated.” A collection of anecdotal information was mounting, and the staff worked to locate and map out every American in the country, to maintain contact, and to pass this information to their potential rescuers and to Washington. As the government forces began engaging the rebels, Americans were caught in the middle as the sit- uation intensified. Our Yamoussoukro warden recom- mended that if we were getting the children out, we should use the New Tribes Mission compound as a pro- cessing point in “Yam,” as we came to know the city. An incredible, generous group of people, they turned over their walled school compound to the rescue operation. Deb, along with a number of American embassy col- leagues from other sections, two consular FSNs, and consular associate Ginette Stevens, moved all the tables and chairs from the five or so buildings to the side, and, with the bedding they had gathered up, cre- ated sleeping space for 200. Marty, the embassy com- munity liaison officer went out to buy bread, cheese, jam, cookies, and drinks so that the incoming group would have something to eat and drink. They then set up a processing center in the chapel. The first Americans and other foreign nationals began arriving at 2 a.m., while I was on a satellite call with Deb. Together, we cried tears of relief. First, the Special Forces doctor spoke with each person, then the Canadians spoke with their consul and the Americans with us. By 5 a.m., we had accounted for all but two people. Meanwhile, in the Ops Center… Back in Washington, consular crisis teams were mobi- lized to staff an emergency operation all day and all night. The Operations Center Task Force walls were plastered with maps and satellite images of Cote d’Ivoire. On one map, a Peace Corps representative tracked each Peace Corps Volunteer with a post-it note. The consular affairs representative maintained another map with post-it notes showing private Americans. Simultaneously, consular officers, as well as French and American forces on the ground in Cote d’Ivoire, maintained similar maps to track the escape of hundreds of Americans in the country. As groups of Americans made their way south, or were liberated by French and American forces, the post-it notes were gradually moved southwards on the map to Abidjan or to Accra (Ghana), where many were evacuated to safety. When word came from our embassy in Abidjan that another group had escaped from the danger zones, a loud whoop of joy sounded from the seventh floor of the Department of State. While specially trained consular officers in Task Force 2 dealt with the barrage of calls from the American public worried about loved ones, constituents and employees on the ground in Cote d’Ivoire, the consular affairs representative provided information to callers ranging from the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Red Cross, and provided policy guidance to the consul who was about to board a C-131 with the U.S. military in an effort to evacuate Americans from the town of Bouake. The Bouake rescue mission continued for two days. But that was just the beginning of what would be a series of rescue operations in a half-dozen towns. The first group of Americans in Bouake was liberated when French troops, in coordination with American person- nel, negotiated with the rebels a “laissez-passer,” a peri- od of unimpeded safe passage under protection of armed protective forces along the route from Bouake to Yamoussoukro. Future operations involved rescue in C- 130s, processing in Yam, then onward evacuation to Accra, where Regional Consular Officer Andre Goodfriend, on emergency TDY in Ghana to support the Cote d’Ivoire Americans, was waiting to receive and assist them with onward travel. Consular staff on the ground in Cote d’Ivoire virtual- ly dodged bullets and survived on little or no food, and without standard personal hygiene items. They were mosquito-bitten and exhausted, running on sheer deter- mination to do their jobs. Their names, and the names of all the others in Washington, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, and at neighboring missions who supported the evacua- tion for several weeks, are far too numerous to list here. This story, fortunately, had a happy ending for the hun- dreds of Americans who escaped danger. F O C U S F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29