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Being gay in Africa, living in fear

Marrakech (Morocco), Dec 15 (EFE) .- (Camera: Mohamed Siali) To be homosexual in Africa is to live in fear and fleeing: from your own family, from the police, from neighbours, from physical and verbal violence, from humiliation. But sometimes running away isn't enough, because homophobia haunts you to death. This is the story of several men and women from Senegal, Cameroon, Congo or the Ivory Coast, punished, mistreated or exiled for being gay and who landed in Morocco, a country that shelters them even though it paradoxically has a law (489 of the Penal Code) that punishes homosexuality with jail.FOOTAGE AND SOUNDBITES OF SAIDOU AND MAYA, FROM SENEGAL.TRANSLATION:- SAIDOU:1. "My brothers? I can't call them that, they are the ones who repudiated me, never protected me, threw me out of the house and denounced me in the mosque with a microphone."2. "HCR is my father and mother, my real parents, even if one day I leave, it will be like I share an umbilical cord with them."- MAYA:3. "My girlfriend dresses like a boy and they attack us, look at my eye, they raped me in front of her, and I didn't go to the police because I didn't have a green card."4. "We distrust everyone, we don't have friends. We don't go to anyone's house or have parties."