Evacuated kids arrive in Ghana

A group of American children evacuated from troubled Ivory Coast arrived in the neighbouring West African country of Ghana on Thursday on their journey home.

Witnesses said a group of about 20 pupils and staff from the International Christian Academy arrived aboard a US military transport plane at Accra airport and were quickly whisked away by bus.

The Americans and other Westerners at the missionary school in Ivory Coast's second city of Bouake were rescued by French troops on Wednesday after hiding for six days as fighting raged around them in a bloody army uprising.

The first stopover for the Americans was at Yamoussoukro, about 100km south of Bouake, where the United States sent forces to meet them and help them on their way.

All the Americans had left the airport at Yamoussoukro by early Thursday afternoon. Embassy officials said that some of them would be heading for Ghana while others would go by road to Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan under tight security.

Many of the children at the school were from missionary families across Africa. They came to study in Ivory Coast as it was a country once seen as a haven in a troubled continent.