Niger: Man Accused of Supporting Gays in Niger Attacked in Niamey

From- Mahmud Iddris , Niamey. 

Chamssou Ibrahim Salou, a suspected gay practitioner was attacked and beaten by members of a vigilante group in Yantala, a suburb of Niamey, the Nigerean capital over the week. 

Chamssou, who deals in electrical goods is suspected of accommodating one, Zurka, a known gay practitioner in the Yantala community . 

The vigilante group that confronted Chamssou were not moved by the explanation he gave that he doesn’t know where Zurka was. 

The group therefore vented their anger on Chamssou claiming that he was lying and thereby started beaten him up with sticks, metals and other offensive weapons. 

They accused him also of supporting homosexuality to thrive in Niger, a Muslim country. Gay practice is illegal and punishable by law in Niger and in accordance to the practice and teachings of the Islamic religion. 

This portal understands Chamsou who was injured in the chest and other part of the body was rushed to the hospital by neighbours who saw what happened to him. 
This reporter was in the Nigerean capital of Niamey for an Islamic Dawa (preaching) convention, when he chanced upon this story. 

The Niamey Vigilante group is known and feared for its violent nature of attacks on lesbianism, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) practitioners. 

 This reporter caught up with Mallam Abass Musah, a leading member of the Vigilante Group, who confirmed the attack on Chamsou and added that they are still on the look for both Chamssou and Zurka as well as other LGBT practitioners in Niamey and beyond. 

Niger, he said is an Islamic state that is strongly opposed to gay practice and that we shall crash any individual or movement that practices or supports homosexuality in Niger. 

He described homosexuality as satanic, barbaric and an abomination which must not be allowed to flourish anywhere in Niger or any Muslim country and community. 
Gays and their supporters deserve to be killed to serve as lesson to others who are secretly practicing it to desist from it because its not good for a man to sleep with a fellow man. 

He threatened that they (vigilante group) have resolved to torture and kill anyone found to be gay or suspected to be supportive of gay practice in Niger. 

Madam Halimatou Alhassan, the dejected mother of Chamssou Ibrahim insisted that her son is not a homosexual and that she believed he was wrongly accused . 

She however admitted seeing her son with one young man whom Chamssou introduced to her as Zurka and  a former school mate  but she wasn’t aware Zurka is a gay . 
“They both lived under this roof for about two weeks before Chamssou was attacked and beaten for harboring a known gay practitioner” she explained . 
 However, Madam Halimatu was silence on her son’s present whereabout. 
As at the time of going to the press, Chamssou Ibrahim had fled the Yantala – Niamey township.

 An anaymous  source who spoke to this portal claimed Chamssou might have either travelled to Nigeria or be hidden at his grandmother’s hometown of Larba in the Tera Tilaberry geographical area of Niger. 
This reporter was in Niamey for the for the  Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa’a (ASWAJ) Islamic Convention when he chanced upon this story.