France and the United Nations began evacuating thousands of French and other expatriates Wednesday trapped at U.N. offices and a French military base amid days of anti-foreigner rampages in Ivory Coast's largest city, French and U.N. officials said. France alone expected to evacuate between 4,000 to 8,000 of its citizens from across Ivory Coast _ potentially the majority of the 14,000 French still in the former French colony, French Embassy spokesman Francois Guenon said. "It is on a voluntary basis. We are not going to evacuate all our French citizens because they are too many," Guenon said. "We are evaluating the number of those wanting to leave and we have between 4,000 to 8,000 French who have expressed a wish to leave whether temporarily or for good," he said. Evacuations started Wednesday morning with a convoy of 40 U.N. personnel, U.N. spokesman Philippe Mathieu said. The 40 were among more than 1,000 expatriates who have holed up in a U.N. headquarters amid four days of looting and attacks, Mathieu said. More than 1,600 other foreigners who have taken refuge in a French military base in Abidjan are to be flown out. They included 985 French and citizens of 42 other countries, the French said.
