NGO alarmed after Senegal arrests 12 on same-sex charges

LGBTQ

Dakar –  Gay rights advocacy group Stop Homophobia voiced alarm on Monday over the arrest in Senegal of 12 people, including two celebrities, for alleged same-sex relations, which are banned in the country.

In devout, mainly Muslim Senegal, “unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex” carry a prison sentence of up to five years.People are regularly arrested on these charges.

Military police said on Saturday they had arrested 12 Senegalese nationals for alleged “criminal conspiracy, unnatural acts, deliberate transmission of HIV/AIDS through unprotected sexual intercourse and endangering the lives of others”.

Two celebrities – TV and radio presenter Pape Cheikh Diallo and singer Djiby Drame – were among those detained, police told AFP on Sunday.

“This case serves as a reminder that in Senegal, consensual sex between adults remains criminalised, exposing LGBTQIA+ people to arbitrary arrests and stigmatisation,” Stop Homophobia secretary-general Terrence Khatchadourian told AFP on Monday.

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He said the Paris-based NGO was “concerned” by the detentions, stressing that the detainees were presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The case has caused a storm on social media in Senegal, where same-sex relations are widely considered deviant and discrimination against the LGBTQ community is commonplace.

Police said at least six of the 12 arrested had tested HIV-positive and, despite that, several had “continued to have unprotected sex with other partners, all of whom were men”.

Religious associations have organised several demonstrations in recent years to demand tougher penalties and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has repeatedly promised to crack down on same-sex relations.

In October 2023, a crowd reportedly dug up the corpse of a homosexual man in order to set fire to his remains.

The desecration, reportedly not the first of its kind, caused widespread outrage.

In 2021, France removed Senegal from the list of countries to which asylum seekers could safely be returned.

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Source: AFP

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