Mass arrests at gay bar in Cameroon
(According to a recent report, all those who were arrested have been released.)
By Erin Royal Brokovitch
Police raided a popular gay bar in Yaoundé early this morning, surrounding the site with police vehicles and making arrests en masse.
The Mistral bar in the Essos neighborhood of Cameroon’s capital city had been a welcoming oasis where gay men could relax, but starting at around 3 a.m., Sunday, Oct. 9, it became a traumatic location that police ordered to be evacuated, carrying away all the patrons in trucks to area police stations.
About 30 minutes earlier, police blocked the entrance to Mistral and would not allow anyone to leave. Two police officer entered the bar. People became anxious as they began to think of themselves as hostages.
In a country where gay men are stigmatized, with a law against homosexual activity, people feared that being rounded up at a gay bar would have troubling consequences for their personal lives and their relationships with family members.
Police then ordered people to leave the bar and checked for identification cards at the exit. Outside, with or without ID cards, all the bar patrons were ordered onto police trucks.
Police patrols were stationed at every corner of the cabaret — in front, beside, inside, behind.
As if it were a commando operation, armed police searched inside the bar for people hiding there. Some bar-goers tried to escape out the back, but another police truck was parked there.
At the time of this writing, it’s unclear how many people were arrested and where they were taken — reportedly some to the 4th district station, some to the 14th, some to the 16th. Also unclear is whether charges will be filed against those who were arrested, such as for violations of loitering laws, and whether the raid was an anti-gay operation or merely an attempt to impose order on a rowdy part of the city’s nightlife.
Watch this blog for more information as it becomes available.
The author of this article is a LGBTI rights activist in Cameroon who writes under a pseudonym.
Update (Oct. 10): Journalist Robbie Corey-Boulet in West Africa reported: “Local activists now say everyone’s been freed. Unclear if bar was targeted for LGBT patrons or if this was part of larger raid.”
Alert
A notice posted on Facebook on Oct. 9 by the LGBTI rights organization Camfaids, the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS.
Ongoing mass arrests in the city of Yaoundé
Many people who visit the Mistral bar are LGBT people accustomed to meeting there on Saturday nights for some moments of conviviality. But now [in the morning on October 9] they are being molested and arrested on the sole grounds that they are homosexual.
For that reason, we are issuing this warning for wide dissemination. They were taken to the central police station number 4, the 16th district station and the 14th district station, without apparent reason. Even those with ID were arrested.
Hence this warning from Camfaids, which seeks an end to this intimidation.
Related articles:
- LGBTI activists challenge Cameroon police harassment (April 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Cameroon: Homophobic attacks disguised as burglary (October 2016, 76crimes.com)
- One arrest, one scam, one threat in Cameroon (February 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Another attack on a Cameroon activist; a plea for help (July 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Cameroon: Life of a gay activist turns to drama (April 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Cameroon: Human rights plea provokes death threat (March 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Quick response to new anti-gay persecution in Cameroon (October 2014, 76crimes.com)
- Cameroon police arrest LGBT activist, block AIDS clinic (February 2014, 76crimes.com)