Ivory Coast has traditionally been a safe haven for LGBTQ+ communities in West Africa, but a recent surge in homophobic attacks fueled by social media has “shaken that sense of safety,” Elian Peltier said in The New York Times.

Since September, there have been more than 45 attacks on gay and transgender men in its largest city, Abidjan. In one incident in Yopougon, a working-class neighborhood in Abidjan, a mob targeted a beauty salon run by transgender women. A wider rise in homophobia was shown in September Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers when several groups of Ivory Coast fans unfurled banners bearing homophobic messages and slogans, including “No woobi“, a derogatory term for gay men.