{"id":43811,"date":"2026-04-07T12:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=43811"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:40:00","slug":"we-fear-the-epidemic-will-return-senegals-harsh-anti-gay-law-puts-decades-of-hiv-progress-in-jeopardy-global-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=43811","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We fear the epidemic will return\u2019: Senegal\u2019s harsh anti-gay law puts decades of HIV progress in jeopardy | Global development"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Amadou Ndiaye has spent the past two months watching members of his organisation disappear \u2013 fleeing across borders, being arrested or simply going silent.<\/p>\n

Ndiaye is the secretary-general of UJEC (Union des Jeunes Engag\u00e9s pour Notre Communaut\u00e9), a Dakar-based NGO that runs a refuge providing emergency shelter and community support for LGBTQ+ people facing homophobic violence.<\/p>\n

In February, when Ndiaye was attacked by neighbours and family members, he too left Senegal<\/a> for the Gambia. He has since returned to Dakar, but UJEC\u2019s services are yet to resume. \u201cWe have stopped all our activities. We are no longer safe,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Ndiaye\u2019s experience is playing out across a country that, for decades, has maintained one of Africa\u2019s most resilient HIV prevention systems. The success was built, in part, on reaching men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers and other key populations who are being swept up in a wave of arrests as hostility against homosexuality rises in Senegal.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Anti-homosexuality activists display posters of Senegal\u2019s prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, who campaigned on the new harsh anti-LGBTQ+ law, Dakar, 6 March. <\/span> Photograph: J\u00e9r\u00f4me Favre\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On 27 March<\/a>, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed a new law doubling the maximum prison term to 10 years for sexual acts by same-sex couples and criminalising the \u201cpromotion\u201d of homosexuality.<\/p>\n

Alice Borda\u00e7arre, at the gender equality desk of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), warns that any organisation working on fundamental rights \u2013 including HIV prevention \u2013 could be considered as promoting LGBTQ+ rights under the law\u2019s broad framing. \u201cIt risks criminalising legitimate human rights activities, including those of lawyers, health workers, journalists and NGOs. It is very dangerous,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Pape Cheikh Diallo, a Senegalese television presenter, who was detained and men connected to him arrested.<\/span> Photograph: Handout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Between 4 and 9 February, authorities arrested at least 12 men in Dakar under Article 319 of the penal code, which criminalises same-sex relations as \u201cacts against nature\u201d, after television presenter Pape Cheikh Diallo was detained at a hotel and police used his phone to identify and trace those connected to him.<\/p>\n

According to HIV Justice Network, which monitors HIV criminalisation globally, more than 60 people have been detained since the beginning of February on Article 319 charges, which carry a sentence of one to five years in prison. Forty-two of those cases are linked to the Diallo arrest, according to Sylvie Beaumont of HIV Justice Network.<\/p>\n

For years, arrests have typically surged during periods of political pressure or public moral panic. However, Beaumont says the latest wave is \u201cunprecedented in the region\u201d due to the forced HIV testing of those arrested and the automatic addition of intentional transmission charges for those who test positive. \u201cThis is a fairly new development,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Based on HIV Justice Network\u2019s tracking of Senegalese media reports, at least 22 of those detained since February have been identified as HIV positive and face further intentional transmission penalties.<\/p>\n