ABIDJAN
\nHundreds of women in Ivory Coast took to the streets of Abidjan on Saturday to protest a surge of violence against women, in a country where 800 women reported rapes in 2020.
\nThe movement, dubbed \u201cOffensive Orange\u201d, saw more than 2,000 women march against rape in the Ivorian economic capital, calling it \u201ca weapon of mass destruction with side effects spanning many lives and generations\u201d.
\nDressed in orange T-shirts, the demonstrators marched through the bustling Treichville district brandishing placards emblazoned with slogans that included \u201cRape is a crime, oppose it\u201d and \u201cZero rape in my country\u201d.
\n\u201cTime up for rapists!\u201d said the Ivorian women\u2019s minister Nasseneba Toure, who was flanked at the front of the march by the EU\u2019s ambassador to Ivory Coast and a UN women\u2019s representative.
\nStatistics presented by Toure showed that there were 625 rapes between January and October 2021, while 822 were reported in 2020 compared to 693 the year before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABIDJAN Hundreds of women in Ivory Coast took to the streets of Abidjan on Saturday to protest a surge of violence against women, in a country where 800 women reported rapes in 2020. The movement, dubbed \u201cOffensive Orange\u201d, saw more than 2,000 women march against rape in the Ivorian economic capital, calling it \u201ca weapon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n