Senegalese man jailed under country's first same-sex conviction

A model walks the runway during a fashion show held as part of a queer ballroom event in Nairobi, on May 31 2025.[AFP]

A Senegalese man has been jailed under Senegal's first conviction from a new law banning same-sex relations, a legal source told AFP.

Senegal has made dozens of arrests under the legislation, which came into effect at the end of March after being passed by parliament and signed by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

A Dakar court last Friday ordered the man to six years in prison and fined him the equivalent of $3,600 for what the law terms "acts against nature" as well as for "indecent acts", the source said.

The source added that the other man involved was a fugitive.

The statute allows for prison terms of between five and 10 years and fines of up to $18,000.

Same-sex relations are seen as deviant by many in Senegal, a Muslim-majority African country where defense of LGBTQ rights  is viewed as a Western import incompatible with local values.

Since the law entered force, 63 people have been arrested by the police unit tasked with enforcing it.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has denounced the law as "flying in the face" of human rights.

At least 32 out of Africa's 54 countries have laws prohibiting and punishing same-sex relations.