Cote d'Ivoire-based French school set to reopen after 4 years

ABIDJAN, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Blaise Pascal, the Abidjan-based French school, which was closed down at the height of country-wide anti-French demonstrations in November 2004, is set to reopen its doors to the public on Sept. 2 this year, according to official sources.

This was announced Thursday by Maurice Demailly, the headmaster of the school that was looted and burned down before being officially closed in November 2004, according to the official Ivorian News Agency.

"The reopening is scheduled to take place on September 2," Demailly told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to hold discussions with the country's authorities led by the Economy Minister Charles Diby Koffi.

The site where the school is located has been fully rehabilitated by the Cote d'Ivoire government in a bid to help the school reopen.

Commenting on the issue, the minister refused to reveal the cost of the rehabilitation, nevertheless pointing out "that some traders and workers of the African Development Bank (ADB), which temporarily relocated to Tunis owing to the crisis, were awaiting the reopening of school before they can return to Cote d'Ivoire."

"About 600 students have already enrolled for the start of the new school year with the target being to attract 800 students," said the headmaster, who added that the school will serve as a center for the written examinations from other bodies from June 2.

In November 2004, "young patriots," a group of staunch supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo, had swept through the streets of Abidjan in a violent anti-French protests and riots.

The protesters, who were calling on France to leave the country, were expressing their anger after the French army destroyed Cote d'Ivoire's air force in retaliation for a bombing raid that had left nine soldiers and an American civilian dead at a Military camp in the rebel stronghold of Bouake.

The private Jean Mermoz College, the Jacques Prevert School and the Blaise Pascal High School, all French-owned learning institutions in Abidjan which ensured the education of nearly 4,000 children, were destroyed by the patriots.

The demonstrations also degenerated into looting of French homes and business interests in Abidjan and several cities across the country, forcing France to order the evacuation of more than 8,000 foreign nationals, especially French.

At least a score of the Cote d'Ivoire civilian populations were killed in violent clashes after the French army intervened in a bid to protect marauding gangs from attacking foreign nationals.

The events and circumstances surrounding the protests had led to a complete meltdown in relations between the two former allies until the election of Nicolas Sarkozy to the helm of France.

Shortly after his electoral triumph, President Sarkozy, in a speech setting out his foreign policy agenda for Africa, held out an olive branch to Cote d'Ivoire's leadership, saying the two countries had to find ways to address the various issues that were affecting their ties.

In addition, the French head of state has dispatched a number of senior ministers to the country and even held face to face discussions with his Cote d'Ivoire counterpart over the strained relations.