Kenyan gay and lesbian organisations demonstrate outside the Nigerian High Commission in Nairobi on February 7, 2014.
A bloodthirsty mob has dragged more than a dozen gay men from their homes and severely beat them in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in the first incidents of widespread anti-gay violence in the country since President Goodluck Jonathan passed legislation outlawing same-sex relationships.
The attacks took place Wednesday in the Gishiri neighborhood of Abuja, where a mob nearly beat one man to death and dragged four severely injured victims to a nearby police station, where police further beat and insulted them, reports the New York Times.
The mob shouted it was “cleansing the community” of gays as it broke down doors and used wires, whips and furniture to attack the young men, witnesses said.
The assaults come a month after President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law a bill that criminalizes same-sex relationships, requiring a maximum of 14 years in prison for offenders.
[NYT]