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The junta-led government in Burkina Faso has approved a new law criminalising homosexuality, with penalties of up to five years in prison. The move places the country among a growing number of African nations enacting anti-gay legislation.
While homosexuality is already outlawed in about 30 African countries, it had not been banned in Burkina Faso prior to the military’s takeover three years ago.
The legislation was unanimously passed by all 71 members of the transitional parliament, an unelected body installed following two coups in 2022.
“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.
Officials said the measure forms part of a broader reform of family and citizenship laws and will be “popularised through an awareness campaign.”
Mali, a close ally of Burkina Faso and also under military rule, introduced its own law criminalising homosexuality in November 2024.
In recent years, Ghana and Uganda have also tightened their anti-homosexuality legislation despite widespread international backlash. Uganda’s law includes provisions that classify “aggravated homosexuality” as a capital offence, while imposing penalties of up to life imprisonment for consensual same-sex relations.
