Hundreds of French citizens have fled their former colony of the Ivory Coast after days of anti-French riots and looting.
Some 843 French nationals were flown to Paris from Abidjan, the main city in the world's top cocoa grower, after supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo chased the expatriates from their homes.
More than 2,200 French and other foreign nationals have been sheltering in French and UN bases in Abidjan after crowd violence broke out on Saturday.
Angry mobs went on the rampage after the French army wiped out most of the West African nation's small fleet of military aircraft in retaliation for the bombing of a French base.
The Ivorian government's medical services co-ordinator said French soldiers had shot dead 54 people around the country and injured 1,266 between Saturday and Tuesday. "The French reaction was too rapid, too disproportionate," he told French television.
The Ivorian army accused French troops of behaving like an occupying force, saying on state television that they had opened fire on security forces as they deployed to secure Abidjan.
Saturday's air strike, which killed nine French peacekeepers and a US aid worker, came during an offensive launched by Mr Gbagbo's forces to dislodge rebels who seized the north of the country in 2002 after failing to topple the president.
The Ivory Coast was once seen as a model for Africa of post-independence prosperity.