Human Rights Watch reports that Eric Ohena Lembembe, rights activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex communities has been found tortured and dead in his home:
Cameroonian authorities should immediately conduct an effective and thorough investigation into the torture and killing of Eric Ohena Lembembe, an activist and journalist who was found dead at his home in Yaoundé on the evening of July 15. Lembembe, executive director of the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), was an outspoken activist who defended the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people.
Lembembe’s friends discovered his body on Monday evening after being unable to reach him by telephone for two days, and 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.
More from Religion Dispatches:
Earlier this month we reported on Born this Way, a documentary about LGBT rights activists working in Cameroon amid denunciations from religious leaders and threats of violence. Today comes the crushing news, via Human Rights Watch, that LGBTI activist Eric Ohena Lembembe has been tortured and killed, and that the headquarters of Alternatives-Cameroun, the HIV services organization featured in the documentary as a refuge for so many people, has been burned down.