Southern Baptist missionaries are safe following a November uprising in Africa’s Ivory Coast, but most of them were evacuated from the country temporarily.
On Nov. 4 the Ivory Coast government bombed security checkpoints and rebel facilities, then struck a French base and killed nine peacekeepers.
The French, who for two years have tried to keep peace between the fractured north and south, responded to the shock strike against their troops by wiping out Ivory Coast’s tiny Air Force.
For five days mobs loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo went on an anti-French rampage, looting and burning property.
By Nov. 15, France evacuated 5,000 of its citizens — one-third of the population that had settled in the country since its days as a French colony. White foreigners — anyone who looked French — were open to attack. Several French women were raped. The violence killed at least 60 and injured 1,000.
Workers evacuated
Southern Baptist missionary Rick Funderburk, administrative associate with the International Mission Board (IMB) West Africa office, said, “We are thankful to God for His protection over us during the recent events.”
Funderburk, who works in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, said IMB missionaries were in the country when the civil unrest hit. “In addition to those that live in Ivory Coast, there were several (IMB) families visiting in the country for a training event,” he said, noting most all personnel left the country Nov. 12.
“They were gone for two weeks, so they might have a time of debriefing together,” he said. “After the debriefing, most of those that lived in Ivory Coast returned to their homes to continue their ministries.”
A few regional support positions have been temporarily relocated, Funderburk said, “so they might better serve personnel across the region.” Media and finance were two areas of work relocated.
While most IMB personnel left, one family that does church planting in the interior part of the country stayed, Funderburk noted. “The events had little or no effect on their ministry,” he said. “They were able to continue somewhat as usual.”
Funderburk said when the missionaries returned to Ivory Coast, they found their homes just as they had left them, but many homes in the economic capital of Abidjan were looted.
“For the most part we have been able to live a somewhat normal life since returning,” he explained. “We are careful as we go about town to avoid large crowds and demonstrations.”
With a large number of expatriates leaving the country and businesses closing, Funderburk said, “Ivorians have lost their jobs. The total economic impact has yet to hit.”
And “tension remains high between the French and the Ivorians,” Funderburk said.
While Ivory Coast — the world’s largest cocoa producer — has had civil unrest since the 1990s, it was stable during the first 30 years after it won independence from France in 1960.
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