As Americans mourn the senseless deaths of young black teens Trayvon Martin and Darius Simmons, Africans are now mourning the death of Cameroon gay rights activist Eric Ohena Lembembe, who was recently found dead in his home after being tortured and then murdered.
According to Huffington Post and the Associated Press, the murder happened just weeks after Lembembe issued a public warning about the threat “anti-gay thugs” posed to Cameroon’s LGBT community.
According to Human Rights Watch, friends of Lembembe found his body in his home in the capital, Yaounde, on Monday evening after he could not be reached for two days. As one friend described, it appeared that Lembembe’s foot and neck were broken and that his body had been burned with an iron.
Lembembe, who was a journalist and later as executive director of CAMFAIDS, a Yaounde-based human rights organization, served as one of the most high-profile gay rights activists in Cameroon, which is one of the most hostile nations in Africa when it comes to the homosexuality. It is considered a crime that is punishable by up to five years in prison. Lembembe is the latest in a line of high-profile gay rights activists who have been murdered.
“It is a big loss for our community, and we are a bit scared about what can happen to us,” said Yves Yomb, executive director of Alternatives-Cameroon, a gay rights group based in Cameroon’s largest city, Douala. “He was one of the leaders of this community. So what can happen to the other leaders?”
Al though Lembembe’s murder is now under investigation, friends fear that Cameroon’s legal system will overlook his death like they’ve done other murders of LGBT people.
“What worries us is that in the previous incidents of homophobic threats or violence, the police have done the basics but it’s never gone beyond taking statements,” said HRW senior LGBT rights researcher Neela Ghoshal. “It remains to be seen whether the police will carry out a serious investigation into this matter.”
We send our condolences out to the friends and family of Lembembe and hope that his death will not be in vain and that it will bring change to his country and many others. – nicholas robinson
