The queer community in Angola is reeling from the loss of Carlos Fernandes, founder and director of Associação Íris Angola (Íris), the country’s first registered LGBTQI+ group, amid suspicions of murder. Local media reported that Fernandes’ lifeless body was discovered in his Luanda home on 26th February. Novo Jornal revealed that the Criminal Investigative Service is probing the circumstances of his death, suspecting it to be a murder by asphyxiation. Alarmingly, this marks the second suspicious death of an LGBTQI+ individual by possible asphyxiation in Angola in recent weeks, following the discovery of a lawyer’s body in his apartment. Mourners Faced With Queerphobic Violence