Imprisoned homosexuals face high HIV risk

Ten days after completing a one-year prison sentence for homosexuality during which he was raped and abused, Alim died from an AIDS-related illness at the Central Hospital in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.

Homosexuality is a crime under Cameroonian law, punishable by up to five years in prison. Alim was one of 30 people arrested at a bar in Yaoundé in May 2005. Most of the men were released, but Alim was one of nine transferred to Yaoundé Central Prison.

Lambert, another of the men transferred to Yaoundé Central, cared for Alim until his death in June of this year and confirmed that some of them had been assaulted and raped in their cells. Their advocate, Alice Nkom, intends bringing the matter to the attention of the Supreme Court.

AIDS activists have denounced the criminalisation of homosexuality in Cameroon as hampering their efforts to provide information about preventing sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Men who have sex with men, forced to practice their sexuality in secret, are also less likely to access treatment and care.

Alim only discovered his HIV-positive status after he became seriously ill and was tested for HIV in prison. "Two months before we were released, I took him to the infirmary," Lambert recalled. "But the medical conditions were appalling: the few medicines available had mostly expired and if you don't have money, nothing happens - they don't look after you. You just wait."

He said several prisoners died every week, and those suffering from tuberculosis (TB), the most common opportunistic infection affecting people living with HIV in Africa, were not separated from other prisoners.

A survey at the overcrowded New Bell prison in the harbour city of Douala two years ago found that each cell had an average of two prisoners with contagious TB.

According to Nkom, who is also founder and president of the Association for the Defence of Homosexuals (ADEFHO), "A person with HIV needs the right nourishing food to stay in good shape - this is certainly not the case in prison."

International human rights groups provide aid in the form of medication and money for extra food to Cameroonian prisoners found guilty of homosexuality, but have been unable to accelerate the legal process or prevent the abuses that raise the risk of prisoners contracting HIV.

Nkom said Alim was raped at least twice during his detention. "We do not know if he was already HIV positive before he was imprisoned, but if not, that would indicate that the rapist or rapists also have HIV/AIDS that they can transmit to others."

Another of Nkom's clients, a 17-year-old man, was also raped several times while in prison. A few days before his release, a violent attack by other detainees left him in a coma for two days; two of his friends had to carry him out of the prison.

"As homosexuals, we were the first in line for sexual abuse of prisoners," Lambert said. "Our personal belongings were also stolen regularly." According to him, such behaviour is the result of the widely held attitude in Cameroon that homosexuality is "deviant behaviour" imported from the West.

"It is very difficult to live as a homosexual," he said. "You are insulted when you are seen going into one of the bars where we meet; you are insulted where you live. Sometimes they put the police onto you."