With their chants ringing through the streets, nearly 200 women and girls march through the Ivory Coast town of Grand-Bassam. It is early December, and the march is the culmination of 16 days of activism to denounce femicide in the west African country.
The demonstrators, aged between 14 and 75, are dressed in orange and armed with slogans expressing their pain. “Tired of being killed, tired of being raped,” one woman chants in French. “Protect us alive, not dead,” yells another.
Many are schoolgirls from the Girls’ Training and Education Institute (IFEF) of Grand-Bassam, marching for the first time against gender-based violence. They all have anecdotes about how it has affected them and those around them.
Sarah Rokiata, 16, became aware of the issue after a friend told her that someone in the village had “operated on her for her wellbeing”. Later, Rokiata learned that was code for female genital mutilation.
“We are the women and girls of tomorrow,” she says. “We have to fight against rape, we have to fight against femicide, we have to fight against excision.”
The march in Grand-Bassam, the colonial-era capital of Ivory Coast, echoes the first public demonstration by women – in 1949 – when more than 2,000 marched to free their husbands imprisoned by French colonial authorities.
Meganne Boho, the president of the Ivorian League for Women’s Rights, says: “Contrary to what school textbooks say, those women didn’t just march for their husbands, they marched for themselves, for their freedom. And 75 years later, we’re retracing their steps to pay tribute to these warriors.”
Sylvie Kassi, 52, is at the head of the procession. “I hear about violence on the radio, I hear about forced marriages on the TV, but this is the first time I’ve seen women get together and take to the streets to say stop to violence,” she says. “I’m proud to be part of it.”
During the days leading up to the march, activities across the country included women’s forums with discussions and theatre and a caravan crisscrossing the country to raise awareness of gender-based violence in schools and among the wider public.
The marchers stop in front of the town’s courthouse to voice their dissatisfaction with the failure of the justice system to protect victims and the lack of severe penalties in cases of violence against women.
Perpetrators of femicide are tried either for murder, which carries a sentence of between 10 and 20 years, or for rape, with a sentence of between five and 20 years. But a deep distrust of law enforcement agencies means most cases never make it to court. And those that do are not taken seriously, say activists.
“There are too many closed cases when it comes to femicide and violence against women in general,” says Amandine Yao, founder of the Gouttes Rouges organisation. “We’re calling for justice.”
The 16 days of activism started on 25 November and were organised by a coalition of women’s rights organisations. Gender-based violence is still prevalent on the continent despite years of work by such groups. In 2023, there were an estimated 21,700 victims of femicide committed by an intimate partner or relative in Africa, according to the UN.
In Ivory Coast, a survey by the nonprofit Citizens for the Promotion and Defence of the Rights of Children, Women and Minorities (CPDEFM), found that more than 416 femicides took place across six of Abidjan’s 13 communes between 2019 and 2020. Several horrific cases made the headlines this year: a 19-year-old stabbed to death, allegedly by her partner after he accused her of stealing; a soldier who shot his wife and then killed himself in April.
Activists, however, believe the figures do not fully represent the scale of the problem.
“It is complex to carry out studies to obtain statistics on femicide, but it is not impossible because … the culture of silence is gradually receding,” says Marie-Michelle Nda, director of CPDEFM. “But we need financial resources, logistical resources [and] the government must support us in this fight.”
In 2021, the Ivorian government adopted measures to protect victims of domestic violence, rape and sexual violence in general, including establishing emergency protection orders. It also ended the requirement for a victim to supply medical certificates, and introduced training for gendarmes and police officers on gender-based violence.
In September, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ranked Ivory Coast as the leading African country in the fight to end discrimination against women.
But many women say there is still a lot to do, including recognising femicide.
“In Ivorian law, the term ‘femicide’ does not exist,” says lawyer and activist Ferela Soro, general secretary of the Organisation for Feminist Reflection and Action. “In order to impose harsher penalties, we are advocating for femicide to be recognised in the penal code on an equal level with infanticide or patricide.”
For the young women joining the march, it is an opportunity to fight for their right to be safe.
“We are vulnerable,” says Rokiata, surrounded by her friends who nod in agreement. “We deserve to be protected so that we don’t die tomorrow.”
