Abstract
- Westerners evacuate Rwanda. 43 French people left Kigali just now aboard a first Transall chartered by France. Paris has strongly advised its nationals to leave the country where fighting is intensifying between rebels and government forces. We are now talking about tens of thousands of deaths.
- The operation is called "Amaryllis". She has just started. These men are Belgian soldiers. They leave their military base in Tielen, it was last night. A few hours later, aboard these planes they flew to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Their mission: to ensure the protection and evacuation of foreign nationals stranded in a capital on fire and bloodshed.
- Because we have to act quickly, in Kigali this very morning at 6.30 am, 280 French paratroopers seized the airport. Their objective: to hold this strategic place and make it a bridgehead to evacuate the foreign community; 1,500 Belgians, 600 French but also several hundred Germans, Americans, Italians and Canadians.
- The French forces come from the Central African Republic, from Bangui. And it is to Bangui that these expatriates of all nationalities should be evacuated. At this very moment, French civilians are gathering in the Rwandan capital. Christian Dardanne, French national in Kigali: "We have a rallying point which is the French school in Kigali. For the moment it only concerns women and children. At the French school in Kigali, we are taken into charged by the military. The instructions are very simple: do not leave the dwellings, prepare a bag in the event of a departure".
- The most difficult thing for the paratroopers of the 3th RIMa is to ensure a connection between the airport and the city center. Especially since the situation remains confused and fighting has resumed between rebels and government forces. It would even seem, in recent hours, that it has become extremely dangerous for French soldiers to hold Kigali airport.
- This evening, the International Red Cross no longer speaks of thousands of dead but of tens of thousands of victims.
- The rebels make their way to the capital to fight the presidential guard and even threaten to confront the French troops if they should be on their way. The civil war, the war between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, is again on the march in Rwanda.
- 120 French soldiers were sent as reinforcements. This brings the system in place in Kigali to 400 soldiers.