US May Evacuate Abidjan Embassy
By KUNA
The United States said Wednesday that it has a team of US officials on the ground in Ivory Coast for a possible evacuation of the US embassy in the economic capital Abidjan.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that the situation in the country is “calm”, announcing that a small Department of Defense team has been deployed yesterday on the ground at the US embassy in Abidjan to assess possible options, including the evacuation of embassy staff, in the wake of the errant rocket that hit exterior wall of the embassy’s compound last week.
“They are also looking at contingencies regarding if there is unrest, possible evacuations, as would be normal and prudent in a situation such as we have in Abidjan,” he added.
Toner noted that this US mission in Abidjan is “part of prudent planning on the part of an embassy in a situation such as in Abidjan. The embassy is under ordered departure, there is no plans to do anything more than that at this time”.
