The mob dragged them outside a bar to beat her. (Screen capture via Twitter)
A violent mob sexually assaulted, beat and humiliated an intersex person for several hours all while filming it in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
In the capital city, Sara (not her real name) was hospitalised after suffering multiple hematomas across her body. Her injuries are so severe, doctors say, she must be monitored for 15 to 18 days.
According to the Human Rights Watch, the horrifying attack that has shuddered fear throughout the country took place on Monday (15 November.
Seemingly capturing the impunity of her attackers, the group filmed themselves setting upon Sarah for several hours in the Messassi district. Two of the videos went viral on social media, the organisation added.
The startling footage shows Sara, a 27-year-old waitress, being thrashed with twigs, sexually assaulted and dragged outside in broad daylight only for the beatings to continue.
She had met her assailants in a bar. After refusing their advances, the men launched their attack, TV5Monde reported.
City police arrested a man in connection to the incident but released him only 48 hours later.
Government remain ‘silent over senseless violence against an LGBT+ victim’
On 16 November, the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS filed a complaint with the police on behalf of Sara as a victim of assault, battery, and inhuman and degrading treatment.
The Human Rights Watch said Sara attempted suicide on Friday.
“The recent attack on an intersex person in the city of Yaoundé is something to be strongly condemned,” tweeted Nkwain Hamlet, executive director of Cameroonian LGBT+ rights group Working For Our Wellbeing.
“No one is to face that kind of treatment.”
Cameroon is one of more than 30 African nations where it is illegal to be gay and prosecutes consensual same-sex acts more aggressively than any country in the world, researchers have found.
The Human Rights Watch has raised alarm over what it describes as a dizzying surge in the number of arbitrary arrests of queer people.
Dozens of people were arrested from February to April by security forces on charges of homosexuality, the organisation found. Among the 27 arrested was a child.
Those detained face beatings and even forced anal examaination in what the Human Rights Watch says amounts to “torture”.
“Authorities have yet to make a public statement on Sara’s attack,” the group said in a statement on its website.
“Their silence over this high-profile incident of senseless violence against an LGBTI victim risks sending a message of tolerance for such abuse and highlights the government’s failure to protect LGBTI Cameroonians.”
The police, it added, must “ensure the safety of LGBTI activists who are doing crucial work in a climate of intimidation and violence”.