Unrevealed gay cheats death in Puma

A man suspected to be a homosexual was almost beaten to death in Pouma, a small locality on the Yaoundé –Edea highway The Times Journal has learnt.

The man whose name this reporter got as Njock Biyongo was thought to be Ndive Lyonga, a notorious gay from the South West Regional capital of Buea who had escaped from the cell of the Buea Judicial police sometime in March 2016.

Eye witness accounts hold that Njock Biyongo, who is relatively new in this largely rural community, was spotted for the first time in a popular bar on March 4, where he drank and chatted affectionately with another man, occasionally touching and caressing his hair.

This left onlookers wondering. One of the onlookers, Mr Diboule Andre is said to have raised the alarm, taking Njock for Ndive. Clients at the bar as well as other members of the community immediately pounced on Njock.

His ill luck was compounded by the fact that he does not speak French fluently.

He rather speaks impeccable English thanks to the fact that he spent most of his life in Kumba, a major town in the South West of Cameroon. It only took the intervention of elements of the Puma police station to rescue Njock Biyongo.

The police however only succeeded in calming the crowd after presenting a picture of the said Ndive Lyongo whom they said the population should collaborate with them as they join other police stations in search of him.

It is alleged Ndive Lyonga is in a hideout around this area. At press time, Njock was responding to treatment at the Puma District Hospital.

This unfortunate incident has again brought to the fore debate on the fate of gays in Cameroon. Homosexuals suffer recurrent stigmatization, harassment, imprisonment and even dead threats in Cameroon.

Both the Cameroonian traditional beliefs and positive law remain intolerant to gay practices. The over 50-year old Cameroon penal code in its article 347 makes “consensual sexual relations between persons of the same sex," criminal, punishable with heavy fines and up to five years in jail.

Even a bill currently under examination in parliament to amend certain provisions of the penal code has remained mute on the plight of homosexuals in this Sub-Saharan African Nation.

The violation of both the rights of gays and the rights of those who seek to defend them in Cameroon has been widely reported.

International television channels like France 24 have aired documentaries exposing the precarious atmosphere homosexuals find themselves in within Cameron.

A report by the international human rights group Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’homme (FIDH) released on last year shows that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community’s allies and defenders face grave dangers in the West African country.

LGBT activists say they are in danger of arbitrary arrests, having their homes burned, burglaries and “violent deaths”. They also say that they cannot rely on the police for protection.

The case of Ndive Lyonga is therefore not isolated. It is reported that he has on several occasions been arrested by the police but how he succeeds in leaving the prison cell every time remains a mystery.

In 2011, Mbede Roger aged 33 was convicted for three years because he was a homosexual. He will later be granted provisional release 16 months after in what observers describe as Cameroon succumbing to international pressure.