Africa: Ten women have been arrested in Cameroon on suspicion of being lesbians

They have been detained in Ambam, some 190 miles south of the capital of Yaounde, until they go on trial. Consensual same-gender sex is considered criminal in the West African nation and punishable by a jail sentence from six months to five years and a fine. Gay rights defender and founder of the Association for the Defense of Homosexuals, Alice Nkom, says that detainees in Cameroon are frequently tortured in police stations to force them confess. It comes as another African country, Liberia, prepares to consider a bill to strengthen its own existing anti-gay laws. Liberia's former first lady, Senator Jewel Taylor, has submitted a bill that would prohibit same-sex marriage and make homosexuality a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The current law considers gay relationships a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a punishment of up to a year in prison. Archie Ponpon, chairman of the newly-formed gay rights advocacy group the Movement for the Defence of Gays and Lesbians in Liberia and his family have already faced hostility because of his fight for gay rights in Liberia. Recently, his mother's house was set on fire and he and another advocate, Abraham Kamara, were mobbed by angry students while campaigning at the University of Liberia. A wave of intense homophobia has been washing across Africa in the past few years, where homosexuality is already illegal in many countries. Recently, Uganda re-introduced a bill that would make the death sentence mandatory for gays who are repeat offenders.