Parliament doubles prison terms for same-sex love
One hundred and thirty-five yes votes, none against: on 11 March 2026, Senegal drastically tightened its law against homosexuality.
On 11 March 2026, the National Assembly in Dakar debated late into the evening. Then the result was clear: one hundred and thirty-five members voted for a harsher law against homosexuality, nobody voted against, and three abstained. Senegal thus tightened one of the strictest laws in West Africa.
Same-sex acts have long been classed as "acts against nature" in Senegal's penal code. Until now they carried one to five years in prison. Now it is five to ten years. It is also a crime to "promote" or finance homosexuality. Anyone who campaigns publicly for queer people risks three to seven years in prison.
The law was an election promise of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko. The vote came at a heated time. Since February, police had arrested dozens of men, often after denunciations and searches of their phones. Their names ended up in the newspapers, and calls for outings multiplied on social media.
During the debate, MP Diaraye Ba declared to applause that homosexuals would no longer be able to breathe in this country. The sentence went around the world.
Human rights organisations protested, and UNAIDS also spoke out. The UN programme warned that criminalisation keeps people away from testing and treatment, in a country with rising new HIV infections. At least the law contains a clause intended to protect health organisations from prosecution.
At the end of March, the president signed the law. In the summer, parliament went even further and wrote the ban on same-sex marriage into the constitution. Senegal is not an isolated case: in several West African countries, laws against queer people are currently being tightened.