Cameroon’s gay community under increased attack
The rally, organised by the Association of Cameroonian Youth, called for stricter enforcement of anti-gay laws, even though rights groups say the country already prosecutes more gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender residents than any other in sub-Saharan Africa.
Demonstrators also placed signs saying “Homosexuals Forbidden” and “No Gays in Cameroon” on various school buildings. They paraded Cameroon’s flag through the streets of Yaounde while distributing pamphlets and T-shirts with anti-gay slogans.
An organiser of the event, dubbed the Day Against Homosexuality, said it was intended to honour the memory of a student who was “sodomised and killed by homosexuals” in Aug 2006 at a Yaounde hotel. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to five years in jail in Cameroon.
Organiser Sismondi Barley Bidjocka said the association was calling for authorities to increase the maximum sentence to 20 years.
Last month, prominent Cameroonian gay rights activist Eric Ohena Lembembe was tortured and killed in Yaounde in an attack his friends suspect was related to his activism. He was the most high-profile African LGBT rights activists to be killed in two years. No arrests have been made.
In the weeks since his killing, a number of gay rights activists have received threatening text messages, said Michel Togue, one of the few lawyers in the country who will defend people charged under the anti-gay law. He said the government appeared to be in favour of the rally because large-scale gatherings must have government approval or risk being broken up.
