BY LUSY LIMA
Some pastors of Pentecostal churches around the country are planning to organise a march against the rising trend of homosexuality. This is coming amid mounting threats and acts of violence targeting the country’s sexual minorities.
The organisers, we learnt, are planning on brandishing anti-homosexual placards, distributing flyers, pamphlets and T-shirts with anti-gay slogans. It should be recalled that in 2013 a march against homosexuality had taken place in Yaounde, marking an event which the organisers dubbed “Day Against Homosexuality”. They had said it was intended to honour the memory of a 31-year-old student who was “sodomised and killed by homosexuals” in August 2006 at a Yaounde hotel.
The Bishops of Cameroon had also years ago condemned the ratification of the Maputo Protocol which permits States to legalise homosexuality and abortion in their countries.
Sometime ago, the Catholic Women Association, CWA, in Kumbo Central Sub Division in North West Region had staged a protest march “against homosexuality, abortion and related ills”.
Homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon and culprits can be punished with jail terms ranging from six months to five years with a fine of 20,000 FCFA to 200,000 FCFA, according to Section 347 of the Penal Code.
Meanwhile, despite being illegal, homosexual activities are still on the rise in the country and police and gendarmes have stepped up efforts to clamp down on this.
Rights groups say Cameroon has prosecuted more gay, lesbian and bisexual residents than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa.
This was the case in May 2005 when 11 men were arrested at a nightclub in Yaounde on suspicion of sodomy, and the government threatened to conduct medical examinations to “prove” their homosexual activity.
Homosexuals being prosecuted, persecuted
Many other alleged homosexuals have been arrested and detained under Section 347 of the Penal Code. One of these, Jean-Claude Roger Mbede, was arrested by security forces for sending love SMS messages to a male acquaintance and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at the Kondengui Central Prison in Yaounde. The sentence was protested by international human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the latter of which named Mbede a prisoner of conscience. Mbede later died in prison. He had not received medical treatment for a month before he died, activists said.
In November 2011, a Cameroonian court convicted two young men, Jonas Kimie and Franky Ndome, who had been arrested for homosexuality outside a nightclub based solely on their appearance and behaviour to five years’ imprisonment.
In July 2013 prominent Cameroonian gay rights activist and journalist, Eric Lembembe, was found murdered in his house in Yaounde. Lembembe’s neck and feet appeared to have been broken and his face, hands, and feet burned with an electric iron, Human Rights Watch had said.
Another case is that of Terrence Nfon Tamanjong, whose life is in danger because of his alleged homosexuality. Nfon is believed to have begun showing homosexual traits far back in his teenage years as he is said to have had preference for intimate relationships with boys instead of girls.
Having been alleged to have been practicing homosexuality for years while working in Douala in the Littoral Region, Nfon’s ordeal started sometime in March 2012 in Buea in the South West Region. He was seriously beaten in a bar in Buea after he attempted to make sexual advances at a young man who was drinking in the bar. Nfon narrowly escaped lynching after the bartender intervened.
Meanwhile, in late 2013, police raided a hotel room in Limbe and arrested Nfon and a man whose name was reported as Orock Peter Ayukanow. They were accused of public indecency and acts of homosexuality.
Nfon and Orock were whisked away and detained at the Limbe central police station for days. After Orock’s employers found out that he had been detained because of acts of homosexuality, he was sacked.
Nonetheless, the two were later released after the intervention of a lawyer.
Again, Nfon and Orock had another rough time with the police in mid-2014 after the police was called in when they were drinking at a hotel’s bar in Buea. The other customers at the bar called the police and complained that Nfon and Orock were caressing each other intimately in the bar, an act which they termed was public indecency.
But the police let go the accused after Nfon called a lawyer who argued that there was no homosexual or indecent act perpetrated.
Nfon and Orock, who were now living together in Douala, months later, received police summons to appear at the Buea police station. Because they did not show up, a warrant of arrest is said to have been issued for them.
Terrence Nfon Tamanjong and Orock Peter Ayukanow suddenly went into hiding and their whereabouts is not currently known.
It should be noted alleged homosexuals have not only been facing legal prosecution but also rejection from their families who regard it as a taboo.
The offices of a human rights activist, who fights for homosexual rights, Barrister Alice Nkom, were also some time ago ransacked by unknown assailants.
Most homosexuals believe their lives are constantly in danger as they are continuously being persecuted not only by security operatives but also by the public.
Some alleged homosexuals who have been arrested and detained have simply disappeared, causing many human rights activists to believe that the arrested persons are being killed by security operatives.