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France began to pull its 450 troops out of Rwanda Tuesday as the last of its nationals were evacuated, the French defence ministry said.
Also Tuesday, Italy deployed 80 paratroopers in Rwanda to help secure Kigali airport and said it planned to send 80 more troops to Nairobi as the evacuations continued.
Foreigners have been fleeing Rwanda since tribal massacres erupted last Wednesday after president Juvenal Habyarimana died when his plane crashed as it was landing in Kigali, reportedly after being hit by a rocket. Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was also killed in the crash.
Reports from Kigali said the interim government left the Kigali hotel where it had taken up residence, for an unknown destination as shooting intensified in several areas around the city.
UN spokesman Joe Sills said UN troops from Ghana were in the town of Buyumba 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Kigali which was under shelling.
Altogether the UN has 2,300 soldiers and 300 observers in Rwanda from 23 countries. Nearly 1,000 of them come from Bangladesh, 840 from Ghana and 420 from Belgium.
bur/gc/em
