A student missionary has returned home from war-ravaged Rwanda fearing that her friends have been killed.

Miss Dana Bassett cannot contact the African friends she left behind when she was flown out of the Central African country last week.

Since she left it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the war. Many have been slaughtered by people using crude machetes.

Miss Bassett said: "All the missionaries have been flown out of the country but we had to leave my African friends behind.

"I do not know what happened to them. I can only presume that some of them are dead. There is no way I can find out because we cannot contact them. It is very hard to accept.'' Twenty-year-old Miss Bassett of St. Anne's Road, Somerset, flew out to Rwanda in September to work as a student missionary for the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

She had originally applied to work in Cameroon but there were no places and she accepted a post in Rwanda. "It was still in Africa so I agreed to go,'' she said. "In fact I want to get into teaching so I was happy because that is what I was doing over there, teaching American children.'' Unrest in the country began only a month after Miss Bassett arrived. Peace talks between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority were not working.

Then this month President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed by a rocket attack on his plane. His death launched the age-old strife between the two tribes leading to a new orgy of slaughter in which the prime minister and several cabinet ministers, all Tutsis, were murdered.

Nuns, priests, aid workers and 10 Belgian soldiers serving with the United Nations were also killed.

This meant the start of a worrying time for Miss Bassett's parents, Randall and Carol Bassett.

Despite thousands of people being killed Miss Bassett said: "I only saw one dead person, although I was told to cover my eyes when a truck load of bodies passed us.

"In a way I am sorry I did not look because it would have brought home to me just what was happening.

"I knew what was going on but the missionaries decided that I should not see.

I was the youngest one there.'' After an eight hour truck ride to Burundi and then a flight to Kenya, Miss Bassett finally found out what was happening in Rwanda.

"I saw more on CNN news than I did in Rwanda itself,'' she said. "It was only then that I realised the scale of what was happening. When I saw the hundreds of bodies lying around, it was hard to look at that.'' She left Kenya and spent a few days in London before meeting her mother in New York City. They arrived home late Thursday.

Miss Bassett said: "It was good to see my parents again.

I had not seen them for a year.

"It is also good to hear that many of my friends managed to get away from Rwanda unhurt.'' She was welcomed by friends, family and members of the Adventists, the Church of God and the AME Church.

Miss Bassett now intends to finish school before considering her future, but she says she may consider missionary work in the future.

WELCOME HOME -- A delighted Miss Dana Bassett is greeted by friend Mr. Curtis DeGraff on her return from Rwanda.