Covenant News

Missionaries Evacuate Bangui as Tension Mounts

BANGUI, CAR (November 17, 2002) - Mission staff members from the Evangelical Covenant Church, along with those from the Evangelical Free Church and Grace Brethren, left the region this weekend following continued violence that some observers fear will not end any time soon, Covenant News Service has learned.

"The assessment of the staff in Bangui is that they feel there is too much potential for trouble in the days and weeks ahead," said Pete Ekstrand, who along with his wife, Cindy, serve as ECC regional coordinators for Africa. "Thus the wisest course of action is to leave Bangui now while there is a peaceful window of opportunity."

Many of the missionaries will go to up country areas in the Central African Republic and monitor developments, Ekstrand noted.

"Things are not getting better at present and the potential for further violence mounts," said a Free Church missionary working in Bangui. "Yesterday they (government soldiers) began requisitioning vehicles downtown - small pickups to be used to move soldiers around. The American Embassy evacuated their staff (November 2) the first week after the trouble began. Since then there has been a calm, but no one feels things are over - just a waiting to see what will happen next.

"We aren't ready to evacuate up country people just yet, but there is no guarantee that they are safer this time than people here in town," the missionary continued.

"Pray for much wisdom in all their decisions," Ekstrand said of the departing missionaries. "Pray for grace in conversations with Central Africans. Pray for calm spirits through all their interactions. Pray for the peace of the Holy Spirit to still their troubled hearts as they leave friends and homes."

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