Human rights activists and at least one government official are hopeful the Ivorian leadership will take action on growing evidence that government and rebel forces sexually abused hundreds - if not thousands - of women during the conflict and continue to do so today.

“These are our sisters, our daughters, and our mothers who are in this situation… We cannot remain unaffected by this,” said Fanta Coulibaly, director of the national committee for the fight against violence done to women and children (Comité National de Lutte contre les Violences faites aux Femmes et aux Enfants) at the Ministry of Women, Family and Social Affairs.

Reacting to a report by a human rights organisation that documented over 180 cases of sexual violence, including gang rape, sexual slavery and forced incest, Coulibaly told IRIN: “The report makes you tremble. It’s really stirring.”

“The government will be forced to react, whether it wants to or not. We [the Ministry of Women] will make sure they take action against those responsible.”

She said her ministry had already met the ministries of justice and health on this issue, and that the government leadership was listening.

The report, published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 2 August, said: “Combatants raped women old enough to be their grandmothers, children as young as six, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers. Sometimes family members were forced to watch or were forced to rape their own relatives. Women and girls had guns, sticks, pens, and other objects inserted into their vaginas.”

The report condemned the “prevailing impunity” for these crimes, and said the latest peace accord failed to address the issue of accountability for sexual violence.

Etelle Higonnet, author of the report, said she hoped it would result in an internal investigation, a zero tolerance policy, and “some kind of justice” for the victims.

“I feel very encouraged,” she told IRIN. “We’ve got a great reaction from a number of people inside the government who have a key role to play.”

No official response

The government has yet to make an official response to HRW’s findings, but at the launch of the report, reaction from government officials was subdued.

Lt Anges Nouko of the national police force told IRIN: “We have not yet studied all of the contents of the report. We have just received it and we will pass it on to our supervisors and they will follow up.”

Alain Lobognon, communications director in the office of rebel leader turned Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, made similar comments: “It will take time to analyse all this,” he said. “And we’ll see after that.”

Impunity

However, the information in this report is not new. Another human rights group, Amnesty International (AI), published a similar report in March, citing “widespread and, at times, systematic rape and sexual assault committed by a range of fighting forces”.

According to Human Rights Watch, numerous reports by other humanitarian organisations in 2004 and 2005 came to similar conclusions.

Yet some observers say there has been little action from the government; no perpetrators of sexual violence are known to have been charged or arrested.

“I would have liked to get more from the government regarding the impunity issue,” said Gaetan Mootoo, researcher in AI’s Africa programme and one of the authors of the report.

As part of Cote d'Ivoire's peace accord, President Laurent Gbagbo in April signed a law giving amnesty to crimes committed during the civil war by combatants from both sides.

Mootoo said he was encouraged that the president met delegates from AI and had excluded crimes against the rights of people from the amnesty.

Ongoing abuse

Reports documenting sexual violence are not having an impact on the government, according to Suzanne Zongo, president of Femme Face au Sida, an organisation that fights for the protection of women and children.

She told IRIN that hers and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Bouaké see at least four cases of sexual violence a week, many perpetrated by rebel forces. Just last week, she said, a woman who said she had been raped by former rebels came to see her for help.

“Even if it’s no longer on a huge scale, it continues,” Zongo said.

“The biggest problem is the impunity,” she added. “The government has to take measures to punish those who are hurting these women.”