Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko warned on May 16 that pushing for LGBTQ rights through diplomacy and international organisations could lead to “anti-Western sentiment”.

Being gay is stigmatized in Senegal, where “unnatural acts with someone of the same sex” are illegal and punishable by up to five years in prison.

Speaking to students in the capital Dakar, Sonko urged Westerners to respect Senegalese culture and insisted that persecution of LGBT people had “never happened” in the country.

He then criticized “attempts from abroad to impose a lifestyle and way of thinking that is contrary to Senegalese values.”

He said that while protecting LGBTQ people was an “important debate” in the West, it generated “enormous tensions” in countries like Senegal and warned that increased attention on the issue could fuel “anti-Western sentiment” around the world.

“Gender issues appear regularly on the agendas of most international organisations, in bilateral reports and are often included as conditionalities for various funding arrangements,” Sonko said. (c)AFP