CAMEROON: LGBTI ACTIVIST MURDERED, TORTURED

The brutalised and broken body of Eric Ohena Lembembe, an outspoken LGBTI activist and journalist in Cameroon, has been found in his home in Yaoundé.

According to Human Rights Watch, Lembembe’s friends discovered his body on Monday evening after being unable to reach him by telephone for two days.

When they went to his home, they found his front door padlocked on the outside, but could see Lembembe’s body lying on his bed through the window.

Lembembe’s friends alerted the police, who broke down the door. According to one friend, Lembembe’s neck and feet appeared to have been broken, and his face, hands, and feet had been burned with an iron.

“Eric was an inspiring activist whose work was deeply appreciated by human rights activists in Cameroon and around the world,” said Neela Ghoshal, senior LGBT rights researcher. “Advocating for equal rights in Cameroon, where LGBTI people face severe discrimination and violence, takes tremendous courage. Eric’s activism paved the way for a society based on equality and non-discrimination.”

Lembembe was one of Cameroon’s most prominent LGBTI rights activists. He collaborated closely with Human Rights Watch and two other Cameroonian organisations, Alternatives-Cameroun and the Association for the Defense of Homosexuals (ADEFHO), in researching and launching a March 2013 report on prosecutions for consensual same-sex conduct.

He also participated in drafting a submission for Cameroon’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May 2013 at the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Lembembe was also a contributor to the blog “Erasing 76 Crimes” and authored several chapters in a book on LGBTI rights around the world, From Wrongs to Gay Rights. His organisation assiduously documented arrests, violence, and blackmail against LGBTI people in Cameroon.

Lembembe’s killing follows several attacks on the offices of human rights defenders, including those working for equal rights for LGBTI people.

On June 26, unidentified assailants burned down the Douala headquarters of Alternatives-Cameroun, which provides HIV services to LGBTI people. A few days earlier on June 16, the Yaoundé office of human rights lawyer Michel Togu, who represents clients charged with same-sex conduct, was burgled, and his legal files and laptop stolen.

Both Togu and Alice Nkom, another lawyer who represents LGBTI clients, have received repeated death threats by email and SMS, including threats to kill their children. Although activists have reported all of these incidents, the Cameroonian authorities have not apprehended a single suspect.

“We don’t know who killed Eric Lembembe, or why he was killed, but one thing is clear: the Cameroonian authorities’ utter failure to stem homophobic violence sends the message that these attacks can be carried out with impunity,” Ghoshal said.

“The police should not rest until the perpetrators of this horrific crime are brought to justice. President Biya should break his silence on the wave of homophobic violence in Cameroon and publicly condemn this brutal attack.”