'Bizarre behaviour': Burkina Faso passes law banning homosexuality

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.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.

The law is part of a wider reform of family and citizenship legislation and will be “popularised through an awareness campaign”, officials said.

Mali, an ally of Burkina Faso and also ruled by a junta, adopted a law criminalising homosexuality in November 2024.

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Ghana and Uganda have toughened their anti-homosexuality laws in recent years, weathering huge criticism.

A Ugandan law adopted has provisions making “aggravated homosexuality” a capital offence and imposes penalties for consensual same-sex relations of up to life in prison.