Senegal arrests 32 as LGBTQ crackdown widens

Protesters hold a placard reading "No to homosexuality, call to order" during a demonstration calling for the criminalization of homosexuality in Senegal, in Dakar on May 23, 2025. [AFP]

Thirty-two people arrested in recent months in Senegal amid a crackdown on homosexuality have been charged and brought before a court for "unnatural acts" and "wilful transmission" of HIV, authorities announced Friday.

These new charges which the public prosecutor for the northern Louga region unveiled come on top of 71 other people already facing trial.

Senegal, a predominantly Muslim country, passed a new law in March doubling sentences for same sex relations from five to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Recent months have seen hundreds of people -- mainly men, some of them local celebrities -- arrested, some specifically accused of deliberately transmitting HIV.

The case of the latest detained will be heard at a special hearing, the regional prosecutor's office said in a statement, without giving a date.

Ahead of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games from Saturday, the first Olympic event to take place on African soil, Human Rights Watch had called on the Senegalese authorities to stop what it termed the "brutal repression" of LGBTQ people in the country.

Senegal will welcome 2,700 young athletes for the event's fourth edition from October 31 to November 13.

HRW earlier this month stressed that the Olympic Charter proscribes any form of discrimination and for all participants to have their human rights respected.

The NGO added that the crackdown is violating "rights, causing increasing fear and stigma, and should be ended immediately".

In recent months, several West African countries have passed laws criminalising homosexuality.

Only around 20 of Africa’s 54 countries do not criminalise homosexuality.