Italy evacuates 17 nuns and priests from Zaire .
ROME 1996-12-06
Italy said on Friday it had evacuated 17 Roman Catholic nuns and priests from Zaire where they had been at risk from fighting between government troops and ethnic Tutsi rebels .
The Foreign Ministry said the 10 Europeans and seven Africans took a special flight from the Garamba national park in northern Zaire to the Ugandan capital Kampala where they were being looked after at the Italian embassy .
The group had travelled from their mission on the edge of the park to a landing strip to make the rendezvous , a ministry official said .
The ministry said the group consisted of 13 nuns , seven Italians and six Zaireans , and four priests , two from Belgium , one from Spain and one from Zambia .