By Robbie Corey-Boulet and Diadie Ba
DAKAR, March 11 (Reuters) – Lawmakers in Senegal on Wednesday endorsed a new bill doubling the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts and criminalizing any efforts to promote homosexuality.
The vote – with 135 in favour, zero against and three abstaining – is the final step in adopting the legislation which was a campaign promise of the government that came to power in 2024, led by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko.
Senegal’s penal code already carried an article, last amended in 1966, imposing prison terms of up to five years and fines of up to 1,500,000 CFA francs ($2,676.18) for “acts against nature.”
But proponents of the new bill said that article was too vague and not tough enough.
The new version says acts against nature can be punished with prison terms of up to 10 years and fines of up to 10 million CFA francs (roughly $17,700).
It says a judge may not grant a suspended sentence, nor reduce a prison term below the minimum.
It specifies that acts against nature relate to homosexuality, bisexuality, “transsexuality”, zoophilia and necrophilia.
Those found guilty of promoting or financing such acts also face prison time.
In the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s vote, supporters of the law, including lawmakers from the ruling Pastef party, organised multiple demonstrations in Dakar in which participants shouted “no to homosexuality” and held signs with rainbows crossed out.
The period has also been marked by a surge in arrests of men on suspicion of “acts against nature” as well as, in some cases, “voluntary transmission” of HIV – a crime carrying up to 10 years in prison.
Some 27 men were arrested between February 9 and February 24, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.
The Senegalese law is part of a wave of anti-LGBT legislation in the region.
Last year Burkina Faso passed a law criminalizing same-sex sexual relations for the first time, imposing prison terms of up to five years.
Lawmakers in Ghana are considering a new bill that would increase the maximum penalty for same-sex sexual acts from three to five years and impose jail time for the “wilful promotion, sponsorship, or support of LGBTQ+ activities”.
($1 = 560.5000 CFA francs)
(Reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet, Diadie Ba and Ngouda Dione; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Chris Reese and Deepa Babington)
