France evacuated hundreds more citizens fleeing violence in Ivory Coast on Thursday as opposition leaders from its former colony gathered in South Africa for talks aimed at rebuilding peace. African leaders fear a full-scale war in the world's top cocoa grower would again destabilise a region which includes fragile postwar states such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. About 800 French nationals and other foreigners flew out on Thursday on two planes after days of anti-French mob attacks in the West African country, split between a government-run south and a rebel-held north since a failed coup in 2002. A French military spokesman said some victims of the violence, which raged from Saturday until Tuesday, had been raped. French people said the unrest had been the worst of several waves targeting them over the past two years. "We'll never look at this place the same way again. There will always be that scar," said Frenchman Stephane Mira, leaving the main city Abidjan with his wife and 13-year-old son. --More 0058 Local Time 2158 GMT
