|
I Coast: Foreign women raped
12/11/2004 13:04 - (SA)
Abidjan - Foreign residents in Abidjan were subjected to at least "37 serious atrocities including three or four attested rapes," a French representative in Ivory Coast, Catherine Rechenmann, said on Friday.
In Paris, a French military source said several dozen white women were raped in Ivory Coast in riots that have shaken the West African state since late last week, but no foreign nationals were killed.
A few dozen women were raped, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that no one had been killed.
The top French soldier in Ivory Coast earlier said that women had been raped in anti-French violence that erupted there over the last week.
"I confirm there have been rapes. There were exactions, tragedies for a certain number of women. I will not comment further out of respect," General Henri Poncet said late on Thursday.
Some French nationals evacuated on Wednesday from Abidjan to Togo talked of the rape of women by "young patriots" loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo during the unrest.
A diplomatic source in Abidjan had said he had no knowledge of any French national being killed, although several had been injured, including by blows from machetes.
"This time people were injured and the damage is considerable," the source said, recalling that no French national had been injured during the violence that erupted in January 2003 after the Marcoussis peace accord was signed.
But the military source in Paris later said that the "physical attacks" against women were the only ones committed against expatriates.
- AFP
|
News
