Foreign residents in Abidjan were subjected to at least “37 serious atrocities, including three or four attested rapes”, a French representative in Côte d’Ivoire, Catherine Rechenmann, said on Friday.
In Paris, a French military source said several dozen white women were raped in Côte d’Ivoire 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 Côte d’Ivoire earlier said that women had been raped in anti-French violence that erupted there over the past 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 during the unrest by “young patriots” loyal to President Laurent Gbagbo.
A diplomatic source in Abidjan had said he has no knowledge of any French national being killed, although several have 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. — Sapa-AFP
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