Reuters
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The Transitional Assembly of Burkina Faso is believed to have passed laws deemed to promote LGBTQ practices and introduced fines, sentences and sanctions for convicted people, the Justice Minister said.
Burkina Faso will criminalize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activities by making Burkina Faso the latest in the series of African countries and strengthening rules regarding nationality and stateless people.
The military, which took over Burkina Faso in the 2022 coup, has become increasingly intolerant of opposition amid aggravated violence by Islamic extremists in the West African country.
The law was passed unanimously on Monday by a transitional parliament of 71 unelected people, waiting for the signature of junta leader Ibrahim Traore.
“The law provides for prisons and fines ranging from two to five years,” Justice Minister Edasso Rodrig Byra told state television Monday night.
“Gay practices (engage)… appear before a judge and if there is a repeated crime, you will be deported if you are not a Burkinavean citizen,” he said.
While the government has framed the law as an effort to modernize family law and clarify nationality rules, rights advocates may invoke restrictions on LGBTQ practices and restrictions imposed on legal instruments in nationality cases.
While anti-gay laws are in place in a variety of conservative African countries, including Senegal, Uganda and Malawi, some others, including South Africa, Botswana and Angola, have decriminalized LGBTQ practices or have put in place protection measures.
