Popular Cameroonian crossdresser Shakiro also known as “Cameroonian Bobrisky” has stopped eating and has shared plans to die by suicide after he alongside another suspect were both slammed with a five-year jail sentence by a court in Younde for ‘attempted homos3xuality’.
The New York Times reports that Shakiro, a social media personality who has amassed tens of thousands of followers through her posts calling for more tolerance toward gender minorities in Cameroon, has stopped taking meals according to her mother, Joséphine Marie Njeukam, who visited him in prison on Wednesday.
Njeukam said her child told her, “‘Mum, I won’t survive here for five years.’” She said that her child didn’t kill anyone or steal, and that her sexuality “shouldn’t be a crime.”
Shakiro, real name Loic Njeukam, and his accomplice Patricia, also identified as Roland Mouthe, were sentenced on Tuesday, May 11, and the two received the maximum sentence of five years in prison and fines of 200,000 CFA francs ($372.44), their lawyers told Reuters.
Besides “attempted homosexuality,” they were convicted of public indecency and failing to carry identification.
“This is a political decision,” said one of the lawyers, Alice Nkom, who vowed to appeal the verdict.
“It’s Yaounde (the central government) that said these people must not bring homosexuality to Cameroon,” she added.
It could be recalled that Shakiro and two other persons were arrested in February 2021 by security operatives for allegedly practicing homosexuality, which is a crime in the central African country.
