Cameroon: Two women arrested for walking together
Earlier this month, two members of the LGBTI community of Douala, Cameroon, were subjected to arbitrary arrest, torture, and detention for three days — all for walking together in a public garden.
By Jacks Oke
Two young women — Coco, a pretty 19-year-old, and Vivi, a rather mannish 20-year-old — are just friends. They were arrested because a crowd of angry men decided that they were a lesbian couple.
Both are students in Douala who had met simply to talk over what was going on in their lives. For their security, their real names have not been used in this article.
Coco and Vivi are not lovers, as they made clear to the police before the police arrested them.
“We are not a couple, just good friends. Is friendship between girls criminal?” That was they said they told the members of Ndogbong’s gendarmerie brigade who challenged them during their walk in the public garden of Bonamoussadi on Friday, Dec. 8. “We merely met in the public garden to discuss our respective problems. This garden is a very popular public place in Douala.”
That night, Coco arrived first, at about 9 p.m. A beautiful and charming young woman, she had to repel many advances from men around her. Dejected, they later grew angry when Vivi arrived on the scene. They began shouting at the two women: “Lesbians!” “Suckers!” etc.
Around midnight, gendarmes arrived, beat up the two friends, arrested them, and hauled them to the gendarmerie on charges of lesbianism. The officers interrogated them, kicked them, and beat them with the flat side of a machete blade. They were handcuffed and hung, standing, from a window frame. The mistreatment lasted for three days.
The two women decided that they had no choice but to confess to whatever the officers demanded.
Their parents came to the gendarmerie to plead for their release, but were unsuccessful. Next, local leaders of the national Unity human rights monitoring project got involved. The gendarmes demanded 100,000 CFA francs (about U.S. $182) in return for freeing the women.
The parents and the local activists got to work, collected the money and handed it over to the gendarmes in two deliveries. On Dec. 11, Coco and Vivi were released, one after the other.
This is Cameroonian justice, in which homophobic suspicions and allegations lead to arrests and torture.
Related articles:
- Anti-gay military action in Cameroon: 2 arrests (
- Did homophobia or jealousy trigger Cameroon attack? (
- Cameroon: Homophobic attacks disguised as burglary (October 2016, 76crimes.com)
- LGBTI activists challenge Cameroon police harassment (April 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)
Hooray for Cameroon,this is unfortunate but necessary. We don’t want gay’s anywhere, just as we don’t want rapist, thieves, pedophiles, etc.
@haroldatilee Problen for individfuals like you is, that gay people will be always around, have always been around, and always have been part of the Cameroon culture and history!
The fact that you equal gay people to rapists, thieves, pedophiles etc. shows that you are lacking knowledge! That makes you nothing more then a stupid bigotwithout any brains! But then, you probably are part of a religious sect that rapes children, rob the poor, and feel that a woman is owned by her husband!
You are sick, mentally sick!