On Friday in Senegal, a 24-year-old man was convicted of public indecency and committing “unnatural acts” under a new law doubling the punishment for homosexuality in the West African country.

The local laborer, Mbaye Diouf, was sentenced in the High Court of the Dakar suburb of Pikine-Guédiawaye to six years in prison and fined approximately $3,570 US.

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Senegal doubles penalties for being gay in draconian new law

It’s the first sentence handed down after Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed the law in March, raising the punishment for homosexual acts to 5-10 years in prison and doubling fines.

The courts made quick work of Diouf’s case; just 10 days elapsed between his arrest and sentencing.

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Diouf was detained by police on April 2 after a witness said he saw two men “in a compromising scene” in a garden across from the National Arena in Pikine, outside the capital Dakar, according to reporting from Senenews and Block TV Gambia. He filmed the encounter before approaching the men.

One of them fled the scene, said the witness, leaving Diouf with his trousers around his knees and unable to run. He was taken to the central police station in Guédiawaye.

In his interrogation, Diouf admitted to having sex with the other man and said he agreed to the encounter in exchange for 2,000 CFA francs, or about US $3.57.

Diouf said he was unaware his actions were illegal and pleaded for mercy from the court. His alleged partner, named by prosecutors, remains at large.

The bill doubling penalties for homosexual acts was passed by Parliament in early March by a near-unanimous vote and followed campaign pledges from both the president and prime minister in Senegal’s latest elections to crack down on homosexuality in the Muslim-majority nation.

Thirty of Africa’s 54 countries have laws criminalizing homosexuality or same-sex acts. In Uganda, Somalia, and Mauritania, offenses can carry the death penalty. Uganda passed the most notorious of the so-called “Kill the Gays” laws in 2023.

Friday’s conviction follows months of arrests of gay men and anti-LGBTQ+ protests by religious groups demanding tougher penalties for homosexuality in Senegal.

Social media has been flooded with homophobic messages outing gay people, while mainstream media has rage-baited the public with headlines like “Big homo clean-up” and “Bisexuals, walking dangers.”

The government’s wave of arrests began in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, in February, with the detention of two of Senegal’s highest-profile celebrities, among 12 people rounded up and charged with committing “unnatural” acts and other crimes.

The new law also punishes what it calls the “promotion” or “financing” of homosexuality, seen as an attempt to crack down on groups that support sexual and gender minorities.

Human Rights Watch researcher Larissa Kojoué told the AP on Monday that the law has created a climate of “constant fear” in Senegal, and arrests have become more aggressive “because now there is backing from the state apparatus.”

UN rights chief Volker Türk called the new law “deeply worrying,” saying it “flies in the face of the sacrosanct human rights.”

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