More than 40 Taiwanese have evacuated conflict-torn Ivory Coast as the conflict threatens to spill into neighboring countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, sources said yesterday.
"Around 45 or 46 Taiwanese, including businesspeople and our trade officials, have left the country. The last group to evacuate reached Burkina Faso on Feb. 7," said Lee Chen-hsiung (
Others returned to Taiwan or fled to neighboring countries such as Nigeria, Lee said.
Five to six Taiwanese decided to stay in Ivory Coast to protect their properties and business interests in the Western African nation, Lee said.
"They were afraid that once they left, their properties would fall into the hands of robbers," Lee said.
The handful of Taiwanese still in Ivory Coast are involved in various businesses including trade, manufacturing and agriculture, Lee said.
The uprising in Ivory Coast began last September and developed into a full-scale war, with rebels now controlling half the country.
In a country where foreigners are estimated to account for one-third of the population, some in Ivory Coast have accused Burkina Faso and Liberia of backing the rebellion, a remark that met with strong denials by the two countries' governments.
But the accusation raised the specter of the conflict spreading across the region, and Muslims and foreigners in government-controlled areas have already been targeted in several xenophobic attacks.
"Burkina Faso had nothing to do with this," said Ambassador Jacques Sawadogo of the Embassy of Burkina Faso in Taiwan.
France has also evacuated some 16,000 French nationals.
The influx of refugees and the return of countless nationals working in Ivory Coast have damaged the economies of Burkina Faso and Liberia, Taipei-based African diplomats said.
"It's a very bad situation for us," Sawadogo said.
More than 3 million citizens of Burkina Faso are estimated to have worked in Ivory Coast and a lot of them have fled the country during the recent conflict, Sawadogo said.
"Since the beginning of the crisis, more than 100,000 Ivorians have fled to Burkina Faso," Sawadogo said.
Burkina Faso had used the capital of Ivory Coast, Abidjan, as the port through which it bought and sold goods, but that route has now been cut off, Sawadogo said.
Taiwan's embassy in Burkina Faso has donated around 400 sacks of rice to the local government to help cope with the influx of people from Ivory Coast, Ambassador Tao Wen-lung (陶文隆) has told the foreign ministry.
Liberia's Ambassador to Taiwan John Cummings said many Ivory Coast-based Liberians "are also returning because of the turbulent situation in Ivory Coast" or decided to settle down in other neighboring countries.
The return of countless African expatriate workers in Ivory Coast to their home countries has hurt the whole West African region as poor countries lose valuable remittance earnings.
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