Tag: ivory coast

Anti-gay mobs loot offices of LGBTI rights group in Ivory Coast

The offices of LGBTI rights group Alternative Cote d’Ivoire were ransacked by around 200 homophobic thugs on Saturday – smashing windows and stealing computers The most prominent LGBTI rights group in the West African nation of Ivory Coast has had its offices looted, with rocks and garbage hurled into the building and computers and other… Read more »

Prominent Abidjan Gay Bar Shuts Its Doors

Abidjan, Ivory Coast — On a recent Saturday night, a group of young men mingled outside what looked like an ordinary warehouse in Abidjan’s southern industrial zone. Inside, a DJ improvised a set list made up mostly of club tracks, including Rihanna and Chris Brown from America, and Chidinma and Iyanya from Nigeria. The crowd… Read more »

Transgender Sex Workers Face Abuse In Ivory Coast

Abidjan Ivory Coast — It seemed like a case of simple blackmail. Late one night last month, two cars carrying around 10 soldiers pulled up to a group of prostitutes in Abidjan’s Vallon neighborhood and began demanding bribes. To save themselves, some of the women in the group approached the soldiers and told them what… Read more »

Ivory Coast: Anti-gay Stigma Hinders Bid to Lower Côte d’Ivoire’s HIV Rate

Abidjan (IPS) – When Emmanuel Kokou, a 28-year-old sex worker, moved from his native Togo to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 2010, he knew there was a good chance that he had previously been exposed to HIV. But he had no intention of getting tested. “I had done a lot of silly things,” said Kokou, whose… Read more »