COTE D'IVOIRE: “Rapes are encouraged”

DAKAR Tuesday, October 21, 2008 (IRIN) - Rapes of women and girls are common in western Côte d’Ivoire and generally go unpunished, said residents of the region. “These days nearly every time we hear of armed robberies in homes, on the roads or on plantations, we hear of rape,” said a resident of the western town of Duékoué some 500km from the commercial capital Abidjan, who wanted to remain anonymous. “We hear of two, three, four rapes every day.” With the proliferation of arms since conflict...