\n<\/p>\n
Three friends in homophobic Cameroon can be set free for $213 eachDonations are urgently needed to free eight prisoners, including Addie, Diane and Sonia. For their safety, in this article they are identified by pseudonyms.This illustration of Addie, Diane and Sonia was created by ChatGPT, based on descriptions of each of them by reporter Jean Jacques Dissoke.\u00a0A year ago, three young women friends were working in a hair salon and a clothing store. That comfortable life ended when Cameroon police lured them into a trap, using an online dating site.On Nov. 20, they were arrested on homosexuality charges.No longer were they seen as three friends who used to play football\/soccer together. Now they were suspected of belonging to \u201ca lesbian network\u201d in the Ahala neighborhood of Yaound\u00e9, the nation\u2019s capital.They were promptly put on trial, convicted and sentenced to six months in prison under Article 347-1 of the Cameroonian Penal Code.Such is life for LGBTI people in the central African nation of Cameroon, where law enforcement uses intrusive tactics such as online surveillance and ambushes to target the LGBTI community.Addie, 27, had responded to an online invitation from someone who appeared to be an appealing lesbian.\u00a0 When Addie arrived at the rendezvous, police arrested her and seized her phone.\u00a0 Data on the phone led to the arrest of Diane, 33, and Sonia, 28, two of her friends.Yaound\u00e9 Central Prison (Photo courtesy of Andy Kopsa)Their release was scheduled for mid-May but only if they had paid fines and court costs totaling 120,000 FCFA each (about U.S. $213).\u00a0 They don\u2019t have money to pay, so they remain in Yaound\u00e9 Central Prison while they work off the fine, a process that typically takes about four months.During their months in prison, they have received no visits from their families, who have rejected them. They are surrounded by homophobic and lesbophobic guards and prisoners.\u00a0 They get only one poorly prepared, unhygienic meal a day.In April, a reporter for Erasing 76 Crimes visited them with a delivery of food and hygiene supplies. In interviews with them, he verified that they qualify for help from Project Not Alone. The criterion: They were imprisoned for nothing other than who they love.See Also
\nProject Not Alone is now raising funds to pay their fines, which will qualify them for immediate release. They are three of the eight prisoners that the project aims to set free this year in addition to raising money to pay for mandatory upgrades of the free Qtalk app, which has offered private counseling to LGBTQ+ Nigerians since it was launched in 2020.Addie, Diane and Sonia remain hopeful that they will be able to resume their professional activities soon after they are released. Diane wants to open a hair salon, while Addie and Sonia want to launch a retail clothing business.Please help set them free.
\nProject Not Alone is a program of the non-profit\u00a0St. Paul\u2019s Foundation for International Reconciliation\u00a0and its\u00a0Erasing 76 Crimes\u00a0news site.\u00a0 U.S. tax-deductible donations to Project Not Alone 2026 may be made via:
\nPayPal (for U.S. dollar contributions).\u00a0For other currencies, send\u00a0PayPal donations\u00a0to stpaulsfdr@gmail.comDonorBoxGoFundMeAlternatively, you could\u00a0send a check\u00a0to St. Paul\u2019s Foundation, c\/o Colin Stewart, 5517 Paseo del Lago East Unit 1B, Laguna Woods CA 92637 USA. Please write \u201cProject Not Alone\u201d on the memo line and send an email to info@76crimes.com to let us know it\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n
\tRelated Three friends in homophobic Cameroon can be set free for $213 eachDonations are urgently needed to free eight prisoners, including Addie, Diane and Sonia. For their safety, in this article they are identified by pseudonyms.This illustration of Addie, Diane and Sonia was created by ChatGPT, based on descriptions of each of them by reporter Jean …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3659155457675267_172535249438148":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a.jpg",1536,1536,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-768x768.jpg",618,618,true],"large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-1024x1024.jpg",618,618,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a.jpg",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a.jpg",1536,1536,false],"tie-small":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-110x75.jpg",110,75,true],"tie-medium":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-310x165.jpg",310,165,true],"tie-large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-310x205.jpg",310,205,true],"slider":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-660x330.jpg",660,330,true],"big-slider":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Help-us-free-3-women-imprisoned-for-roles-in-a-1050x525.jpg",1050,525,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"