‘Protect us alive, not dead’: how women are starting to be heard on femicide in Ivory Coast

Nearly 200 women marched in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, on 10 December, at the end of 16 days of activism against sexual violence. Photograph: Tora San Traoré/The Guardian

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.