TV Host Yves de Mbella, who runs a prime time programme on the channel Nouvelle Chaine Ivorienne (NCI), sparked outrage among people who were "lucky" enough to watch his show on 31 August.
Initially, de Mbella was planning to cover recent rape cases in Ivory Coast in order to "raise awareness" among viewers, so he invited a man previously accused of sex assault to appear on the show. Things went wrong though. During the programme, De Mbella innocently asked the individual whether his victims enjoyed forced sex. The answer was even more overwhelming than one could expect: "The majority of them did", the newly-revealed "star" said.
That was not enough for de Mbella who decided to get a deeper take on the ex-rapist's story and asked him to demonstrate how he assaulted his victims using a dummy.
Netizens were quick to slam the TV channel and its inquisitive host. Around 37,500 people have since signed a petition to punish de Mbella. NCI subsequently apologised for airing the show and cancelled the final episode scheduled for 3 September.
De Mbella himself took to Facebook to offer an apology to all those who might have been traumatised by the content.
"I'm sincerely sorry to have shocked everyone while trying to raise awareness. I made an error", he wrote on his page.