Via PinkNews: Wasswa John, an LGBT+ activist, was, according to an anonymous source, battered by a group of unidentified locals in the Jinja district, a patch of eastern Uganda dotted with countless churches, fish merchants and rivers.
He spent two days in hospital where allegedly none of was his biological family came to visit him. Activists said his family disowned him after discovering he was gay.
An anonymous source confirmed to PinkNews that John died of his injuries a day after the October 4 attack. His funeral was held today in Lugazi, a town in the Buikwe district in central Uganda.
A member of the Children of the Sun Foundation (COSF), a Ugandan organisation that supports LGBT+ folk and sex workers in the landlocked country, John was violently jumped on by Jinjan locals in his home, sources alleged.
John was severely beaten and knifed. Attackers plunged pangas, a bladed African tool not unlike a machete, to pierce his head.
He was left bleeding in his room with around 10 life-threatening wounds on his head – some deep enough to reach his skull – as well as cuts to the neck, a doctors report stated.
The source, a community leader in Uganda, told PinkNews that John’s family “neglected him right from the day they discovered he is gay.”
They continued: “It is a sad moment for the LGBT community in Uganda.”
Medical staff desperately worked to revive John at the Jinja Regional Referral Hospital.
He was in critical condition and scheduled to have a CT scan, with COSF member tending to him by his bedside, wrapping him in home-brought blankets.
However, in the evening of October 5, the COSF confirmed on Facebook that John had passed away.
Local LGBT+ people reported the incident to the authorities, but community leaders are not optimistic: “Nothing positive will be reached.
“Security forces hate LGBTIQ persons with a passion,” the source stated.
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