{"id":6736,"date":"2021-06-02T19:49:49","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T18:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cov19chronicles.com\/?p=6736"},"modified":"2023-04-26T17:45:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T16:45:52","slug":"kakuma-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cov19chronicles.com\/kakuma-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Firebomb Attack on LGBT+ in Block 13: Kakuma Camp, March 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
John S, a 21-year old LGBT+ Block 13 resident at Kakuma camp, talks to Peter Keogh about the death of his friend Trinidad Jerry following a homophobic firebomb attack on March 15th<\/sup> 2021. Why, he asks, are the <\/strong>UNHCR still failing to protect LGBT+ residents<\/strong><\/a> despite the desperate conditions in which they are living?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In our previous blog<\/a>, John S told his own story of how he came to seek asylum at Kakuma and described the terrifying situation for LGBT+ people in the camp both before and after the firebomb attack of 15 March 2021. John also talked about the lack of response from UNHCR to repeated pleas and demands from the inhabitants of Block 13. This is despite one LGBT+ Kakuma refugee, Ernest Mwiru, committing suicide by hanging himself<\/a> from a tree outside UNHCR\u2019s headquarters in Nairobi last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now another LGBT+ life has been lost – Trinidad Jerry, one of the two Kakuma LGBT+ residents badly burnt in the firebomb. Trinidad and fellow Block 13 resident Jordan were first taken to a local hospital with no specialist burns provision. They were in excruciating pain. They were only belatedly transferred by road to Kenyetta Hospital in Nairobi where Trinidad died on April 12th. An extract of a statement issued by Block 13 residents of Kakuma Refugee Camp and others reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trinidad\u2019s life and human dignity were subjected to attrition and a slow death. As an LGBTQ+ refugee, he experienced rejection, criminalisation and forced displacement from his homeland of Uganda to Kakuma Refugee Camp, where he was subjected to relentless homophobic violence including seven attacks on his body in just one year. He was stabbed; stoned and burned on multiple occasions. [\u2026] Today, as we mourn the passing of our dear brother and comrade, we direct our grief and rage at the UNHCR, who continue to marginalise Kakuma LGBTQ+ refugees like Trinidad and Jordan rather than fulfil their mandate \u201cto aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
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