Help Us Free 12 LGBTQ Prisoners
Ten gay men and two lesbians deserve to be set free in Cameroon and Nigeria, where they are locked up for whom they love. Your donation can help open the prison doors and let them out.
Those 12 imprisoned victims of anti-LGBTQ hostility and homophobia are the focus of this year’s Project Not Alone, which expands on the project’s previous work that won early release for 46 gay, lesbian and trans prisoners in Cameroon and Nigeria during the years 2019 through 2024.
Lesbian former prisoner Sally contemplates her future after Project Not Alone arranged for her release last year from Bafoussam Prison in Cameroon. (Photo by Jean Jacques Dissoke)
This year’s financial goal is $12,861, which will pay the prisoners’ fines and other charges as well as a small payment demanded by the Maroua prison in northern Cameroon to arrange secure cells for gay prisoners who are currently threatened by other, homophobic prisoners there. It will also pay for hygiene supplies and supplementary food for the prisoners during the months while they await release from their dirty prison cells, typically surviving on one filthy, poorly cooked meal per day. Readers’ hoped-for donations will also complete payments for the preliminary scouting trip to the Maroua and Bertoua prisons to interview prisoners and for a training program about LGBTQ people for Cameroonian lawyers and officials.
As in the past, whether those goals are accomplished will depend on the generosity of readers and other donors.
Food that Project Not Alone delivered last year to prisoners in Ebolowa Prison in Cameroon.
The prisoners in Project Not Alone 2025 are in Maroua, northern Cameroon; in Bertoua, eastern Cameroon; and in Port Harcourt, southeastern Nigeria. Their stories will be told in the days and weeks ahead on the Erasing 76 Crimes news site.
We learned about most of the 12 prisoners when LGBTQ rights activist/journalist Jean Jacques Dissoke traveled to Maroua and Bertoua prisons to deliver food and hygiene supplies and to interview LGBTQ detainees there. The 12 prisoners listed below met the requirements of Project Not Alone, which helps only those who are incarcerated for nothing other than their sexual orientation.
In Maroua:
- Four gay men who were imprisoned on homosexuality charges after their local imam reported them to police for watching homosexual videos.
- Two gay men who were arrested by police officers for touching each other sexually.
In Bertoua:
- Two male truck drivers from the Central African Republic who were arrested after they were discovered having sex behind their truck.
- A nurse and a hairdresser who were arrested for lesbianism after their families reported them to police.
- A gay man who was arrested for sexual harassment after his lover's parents reported him to police and the lover denied being a willing partner in the relationship.
In Port Harcourt:
- The heart of Nigerian LGBTQ rights activist/journalist Mike Daemon was touched by the plight of our 12th gay victim of homophobia, who faces a sentence of up to 14 years in prison for homosexuality because he was unable to pay police a bribe of about $560 for his release. He was arrested after he was ambushed, beaten and stripped naked when he responded to an online invitation from a man who turned out to be an extortioner.
This year’s initiative follows previous successful efforts on behalf of LGBTQ prisoners — initially only in Cameroon: in the capital city of Yaoundé (food deliveries to three prisoners) in 2018, in the northern Garoua area and in Bertoua in the east (food for six prisoners and early release after their fines were paid in 2019 and 2020), then back in Yaoundé in 2021 and 2022 (food for 18 prisoners and early release after their fines were paid), in Bafoussam in western Cameroon and in Port Harcourt, Nigeria in 2023 (food and early release for 12 prisoners) ; and in Ebolowa in southern Cameroon and Port Harcourt in 2024 (food and early release for 10 prisoners).
Project Not Alone is a program of the non-profit St. Paul's Foundation for International Reconciliation and its Erasing 76 Crimes news site.
