BY CYNTHIA BIH
Security operatives in Cameroon have launched a manhunt for suspected homosexuals and lesbians. Reports say they are currently on the run after having been declared wanted and warrants of arrest issued for them.
Their case is further complicated because they are victims of circumstances amidst the armed conflict raging on in the North West and South West Regions.
Of recent, the phenomenon of the practice of same sex is gaining momentum in Cameroon, even though some gay rights defenders in Cameroon have disclosed that practicing same sex relations is their fundamental human rights.
The government of Cameroon and some religions bodies like the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon, through Bishops, have condemned it with the strongest energy why the government has launched a fresh manhunt against those practicing it. Those listed for arrest and to face prosecution include Ewane Boris Becker, Okpu Etengeneg Agbor Effala Doris, Akanja Samuel amongst others. They have been declared wanted and the military keeps making impromptu patrols around their neighbourhood to arrest them and a huge ransom announced for anybody who can disclose their whereabouts.
At press time, reports in Kumba, chief town of Meme Division, South West Region of Cameroon, hold that the whereabouts of Ewane Boris Becker remains cloudy and his situation is even more complicated because his father, Ewane Roger, a cocoa farmer, was killed by separatist fighters otherwise known as Amba Boys. This was because he vehemently refused to join them pick up arms against the state while his mother was murdered because she stood in favour her son’s same sex orientation, and his sibling, Ngwe Ewane’s disappearance till date remains questionable.
Ewane Boris Becker, it should be noted, before his escape out of Cameroon, for fear of the unknown, due to his same sex orientation, had been arrested, brutalised and detained in very harsh, cruel, degrading and inhumane conditions. Sources say a warrant of arrest has been issued for Ewane Boris and subsequently a holding charge since he couldn’t be found, thus he risks five years imprisonment if arrested.
Gay rights defender, Barrister Alice Nkom, has noted that for the past years homosexuals and lesbians have seen themselves thrown behind bars and jailed, which, according to her, is wrong because homosexuality is a human right.
“Those who find pleasure in the practice, their human rights must be respected,” she said.
Criminalising homosexuality, she added, is bad law, thus repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience. Barrister Alice Nkom disclosed that in July 2013, prominent gay rights activists and journalist, Eric Lembembe’s was found dead. His neck and feet appeared to have been broken and his face, hands and feet burnt with an electric iron.
In 2017, Barrister Alice Nkom, who has been fighting for the rights of homosexuals and lesbians said “I accused the state that if there had not been criminalisation of Homosexuality, Lembembe would not have gone to prison and his life wouldn’t be over. His life was finished as soon as he went to prison and he died under heartbreaking circumstances in prison”.
In 2021, a Cameroonian court in the economic capital, Douala slammed a five-year jail term and a fine of 200,000 FCFA and a cost of FCFA 29,300 FCFA to two men, Njueukomloic Midrel aka Shakiro and Mouthe Roland aka Patricia of attempted homosexuality practice.
A prominent human rights lawyer and a gay rights activist, Barrister Atoh Walter Tchemi, a Kumba-based legal practitioner and head of The Time Law Firm was recently attacked, molested and tortured by unidentified individuals for defending a homosexual, Fonya Cornelius, who unfortunately was sentenced by the Limbe Court of First Instance.
Following the Douala incident, the government immediately gave firm instructions to security operatives to crack down all homosexuals and lesbians.
According to Human Rights Watch, at least 38 people in Cameroon have been charged under the country’s anti-gay laws in the past three years – more than any other African Nation.
Homosexuality is illegal and criminalised in Cameroon and culprits found guilty can be punished with jail term ranging from six months to five years and a fine of from FCFA 20,000 to FCFA 200,000, according to section 347-1 of Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016 of the Penal Code and Law No.2010/012 of 21 December 2010 on cyber crime and cyber criminality in its section 83-1, which criminalises online same sex proposition to a person of their sex through electronic communication with an imprisonment of one to two years and a fined of FCFA 500,000 to FCFA 1,000,000.