Rape on the rise Abidjan

Abidjan (AP):

The United Nations warned yesterday that violence is spreading across Ivory Coast, citing nearly two dozen rapes in the country's west and one case where a political opponent was sexually tortured.

Local United Nation human rights chief Simon Munzu said yesterday that 23 women have been raped in the last week in western Ivory Coast, where 16,000 people have taken refuge since the disputed November 28 presidential run-off vote last year. Another 29,000 people have fled across the border to Liberia.

"We regret that as a result of the ethnic crashes that we witnessed in Duekue in particular recently, a number of rape cases have come to our attention," Munzu said.