Hassan Conteh, a resident of 2 Kissy Brook, East of Freetown has been chased by religious youth alongside the Sierra Leone Police for being gay.
Times SL Newspaper gathered that the unfortunate incident occurred within 1800 hours on the 15th of September, 2017 when Hassan Conteh was busy having an affair with his gay partner in his room, and somebody within the compound passed on the information to the religious youth. Hassan, according to the investigation comes from an Islamic background, and his decision to engage in gay is considered a breach and affront to Islam and Christianity. Hassan is a minor and his involvement in gay activity has been put under the radar making him feel insecure. Therefore, one evening a team of Islamic youth stormed the house of Hassan holding sticks and other offensive weapons to burn him alive. He was lucky not to have been around at the time. The desperate move of the youth was to burn him alive but being that they were unable to see him, they leave a message for him to vacate the community or risk losing his life.
In Sierra Leone, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc are considered and classed among the evil things of satan. Therefore, society over the years has been frowning on anyone suspected to be gay or lesbian. They are subjected to harassment, stigmatization, and another form of a bully. Sierra Leone’s 1991 Constitution guaranty the right of its citizens to live and belong to any organization or club the individual deemed fit but society believes that gays and lesbians should not be tolerated in the country. In essence, people who belong to the club are faced with serious intimidation, harassment, and stigmatization whenever they appear in public places. Human Rights Organizations are afraid to speak up because the majority of those who are members of the human rights organization are either Muslim or Christian. Therefore, they are also part of those stigmatizing gays and lesbians.
Hassan’s case is one among many who are suffering in silence. Sources disclosed to this medium that ever since a group of religious youth stormed the house in search of Hassan, his whereabouts remained unknown.
This has therefore created serious panic within the country as Sierra Leone is no longer safe for anyone practicing gay or lesbian.
In all of these, Hassan Conteh has been forced to be in exile or risk his life if he ever shows up in the country.
Times SL is investigating the story…