More Foreigners Flee Sierra Leone

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Guarded by U.S. Marines with armored vehicles and 25-millimeter cannons, 1,200 foreigners boarded helicopters Tuesday and fled this West African nation for the safety of an American warship.

It was the third Marine-led evacuation since mutinous soldiers overthrew Sierra Leone’s elected government May 25. Nigeria--which backs the deposed government--sent in new troops Tuesday and appeared poised for another assault. Scores of people died in fighting this week after Nigerian soldiers bombarded the mutineers’ positions.

In Harare, Zimbabwe, African leaders gave their backing Tuesday to military intervention to dislodge the coup leaders.

The 53-nation Organization of African Unity gave approval for a Nigerian-led military alliance to “take appropriate action” to restore constitutional rule in the country.

“We have no alternative but to remove those dogs from our capital,” James Jonah, Sierra Leone’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the gathering in Zimbabwe.

Nigerian state radio said Nigeria hopes no “full military operation” will be needed but said its troops are “policing the coup leaders so as to flush them out.”

“When you are dealing with a madman in a china shop, you do not ride roughshod over him so as not to wreck everything,” according to the radio report monitored by the BBC.

In Freetown, the streets were empty of residents, and sporadic fighting continued despite a cease-fire the International Committee of the Red Cross arranged to allow Tuesday’s evacuation.

Ann Wright, the U.S. charge d’affaires, watched as evacuees--including 30 Americans--boarded helicopters for the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge offshore. Since Friday, U.S. helicopters have ferried about 2,400 foreigners from the city to the warship.

At least 10 people were carried to the helicopters on stretchers.

Wright said the area “has become a very dangerous place with a bunch of 13-year-olds around and out of control. . . . These are a bunch of thugs and lunatics having a free reign of terror.”

The number of people killed Monday was unclear. Sierra Leone radio put the figure at 80, but doctors at the Connaught Hospital in central Freetown put the death toll at 21.