Burkina Faso coup leader Captain Ibrahim Traore participates in a ceremony in Ouagadougou, October 15, 2022. KILAYE BATIONO / AP
Junta-run Burkina Faso has passed a law banning homosexuality and instituting punishments of up to five years in jail, the latest in a clutch of African nations to pass anti-gay legislation. Homosexuality is illegal in around 30 African countries but was not banned in Burkina Faso before the military seized power three years ago.
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The draft law was unanimously adopted by 71 unelected members of a transitional parliament in place since two coups in 2022 in the West African nation. "The law provides for a prison sentence of between two and five years as well as fines," Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala said on national broadcaster RTB. "If a person is a perpetrator of homosexual or similar practices, all the bizarre behaviour, they will go before the judge," he said, adding that foreign nationals would be deported under the law.
