Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s are safe in Ghana after being evacuated from the Ivory Coast, which is being plagued by uprisings. The leaders are expected to return to their homes in the United States and Britain in the next few days. Goodwill Nthani, an employee of Adventist Risk Management’s office in Zaire, is expected to leave Abidjan as soon as possible, according to Jean-Emmanuel Nlo Nlo, communication director for the Adventist Church in West Africa.

Evacuated from Abidjan were Pastor Gerald Karst, a vice president of the world church, associate world church secretary and secretary of the church in North America, Pastor Roscoe Howard, along with Ray Wahlen, special assistant to the world church treasurer.

The various church officials were in Abidjan for regional year-end meetings. Those meetings continued during an uprising that involved French troops, United Nations peacekeepers and local residents.
“The socio-political situation here was hardening,” Nlo Nlo reported in a Nov. 10 E-mail message. “Today…thousands of young people were coming from the inner country to increase the ranks of those who have decided to make a human shield to protect their head of state, and other strategic centers such as radio and TV stations.”

The British, Canadian and United States embassies helped enable the evacuations, according to sources.