A court in Dakar, Senegal, has sentenced a 24-year-old man to six years in prison, marking the first known conviction under a severe new anti-LGBTQ+ law passed just last month. The man was also fined the equivalent of approximately €3,000 after being found guilty of “acts against nature and public indecency.”
The conviction, handed down on April 10 in the Pikine-Guédiawaye suburb, is a direct consequence of legislation that human rights groups had warned would lead to an immediate escalation in persecution. The arrest and swift sentencing demonstrate the authorities' intent to enforce the harsher penalties without delay.
A Draconian Legal Shift
In March, Senegal's National Assembly voted with an overwhelming majority to double the maximum prison sentence for same-sex intimacy from five to ten years. The legislation, quickly signed into law by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, also introduced new criminal offenses. The “promotion” or “financing” of homosexuality is now punishable by three to seven years in prison, a vaguely worded provision that could target activists, health workers, and community organisers.
Same-sex relations were already criminalised in the majority-Muslim West African nation. However, this new law represents a significant and dangerous escalation for the country's LGBTQ+ community, who have long faced social stigma and the threat of legal action.
'A Climate of Constant Fear'
Human rights organisations have condemned the law. Larissa Kojoué, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the Associated Press that the legislation has fostered a “climate of constant fear” for queer people in Senegal. She noted that arrests have intensified “because now there is backing from the state apparatus.”
This development in Senegal is part of a worrying trend of increasingly hostile legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people in several African nations. For communities in the Netherlands and across Europe, it serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing global struggle for basic human rights and the severe dangers faced by queer individuals in many parts of the world.
