Children rescued in Ivory Coast uprising

YAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast -- A Charleston, Mo., grandmother believes her 16-year-old granddaughter, Jillian Arnett, was among the 100 American schoolchildren waving U.S. flags and shouting "Vive la France!" as they escaped a rebel-held Ivory Coast city under siege Wednesday.

Betty Gage had not yet heard any confirmation from her daughter and son-in-law, Kathy and Randy Arnett, but she thinks Jillian was safely evacuated with the other children from Bouake by the U.S. and French military to Yamoussoukro.

The Arnetts are Baptist missionaries from Oak Grove, Mo., who have been living in West Africa since Jillian was 18 months old, Gage said.

"Mostly, they go out to the villages and check on the water supplies," she said. "They work with putting in pumps. They have very bad, contaminated water there. They can get in these villages to witness to the people this way. Whereas, otherwise they wouldn't be able to get in."

Jillian's older sister, Bevin, is studying law enforcement at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo. Gage said the Arnetts won't return from the capital city of Abidjan until Bevin graduates in May.

"They return home every three to four years," Gage said. "I joked with them I was going to be too old for them to recognize me. But, in a couple of years they'll take a year's furlough here when Jillian gets ready to start college at William Jewell."

The International Christian Academy has educated children of missionaries in West Africa since 1963. The school houses 200 teachers, and children ages 5 to 18 of missionaries based across Africa. Most of the children live and study in the compound while their parents work in the field across West Africa.

During the past week, running water to the school compound was cut off, food supplies dwindled, and friends and family members abroad fretted -- but kept their faith.

Despite the fighting and their hasty departure, the children were in good spirits, according to Neil Gilliland, who has functioned as the school's spokesman from Nashville, Tenn., since the school was besieged.

About 100 well-armed French troops reached the whitewashed compound of the mission school at midday.

The evacuation came amid concerns that a full-scale battle could envelope Bouake, a central city of half-million residents.

U.S. and French troops moved into Bouake Wednesday to safeguard the Westerners caught in a six-day uprising after a failed coup Sept. 19 in which at least 270 people died. With insurgents holed up in Bouake and the northern city of Korhogo, President Laurent Gbagbo has pledged an all-out battle to root out rebels in what was once West Africa's most stable and prosperous country.

The 191 Americans evacuated from the school were escorted by the French military to an airfield in Yamoussoukro, where U.S. C-130 airplanes will fly them to Ghana Thursday morning, Pentagon officials said.

The children waved American flags out of car windows as the convoy headed to safety down the region's main road. "We're very happy to get off campus," one girl said as the convoy swept past.

U.S. special forces spilled out of two C-130 cargo planes that touched down in Ivory Coast at midafternoon from a staging point in neighboring Ghana. Plane ramps came down and U.S. forces secured the tarmac of the forest-lined airstrip in Yamoussoukro, clearing the way for Humvees that came rolling out.

American soldiers humping duffel bags and metal boxes rapidly set up a post at the strip, a base for French troops who arrived earlier to move in on behalf of Yamoussoukro's foreigners.