Since 2024, at least five countries in West Africa have passed new or tougher laws against same-sex relationships. Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso made same-sex relationships illegal for the first time. Senegal doubled its maximum prison sentence to ten years. Ghana's parliament has passed a similar bill, but the president has not yet signed it into law. The Guardian

Niger outlawed same-sex relations in February 2026. Mali and Burkina Faso followed within the past two years. All three are run by military juntas — that means army officers took over the government by force instead of through elections. Burkina Faso's leaders said the new law was about standing up to Western influence.

Senegal already had a law against same-sex relations, calling them "acts against nature" and punishing them with one to five years in prison. In March 2026, lawmakers voted to double the maximum sentence to ten years. The new law also makes it a crime to "promote" homosexuality — meaning speaking in favor of LGBTQ+ rights could lead to prosecution. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed it on 27 March 2026. BBC The Guardian

Police are already using these laws. In February 2026, Senegalese authorities arrested at least 12 men in the capital, Dakar, after a television presenter named Pape Cheikh Diallo was detained at a hotel and police used his phone to find his contacts. According to the HIV Justice Network, more than 60 people have been detained since early February under this law, with 42 cases tied to the Diallo arrest. Sylvie Beaumont of the HIV Justice Network called the wave "unprecedented in the region" because those arrested were forced to take HIV tests, and anyone who tested positive was automatically charged with trying to spread the virus. At least 22 of those detained tested positive for HIV and face extra penalties.

In Burkina Faso, at least two groups of people have been convicted under the new law. Thirteen transgender women — people who were assigned male at birth but identify and live as women — were held without a trial from June to November 2025 and said they were beaten by the military unit that imprisoned them. Campaigners say police are trapping LGBTQ+ people through social media and forcing them to name other community members.

Ghana's parliament passed a law against LGBTQ+ "activities" in June 2026. It is the latest version of a bill first introduced in 2021. The president has not signed it yet.

The health consequences are severe, especially in Senegal. Fewer than 0.5% of adults in the general population have HIV, but among men who have sex with men, that number jumps to 27.6%, according to Senegal's National Council for the Fight Against Aids (CNLS). In some parts of Dakar, the rate is as high as 49.6%. A 2024 study in the journal Aids estimated that these men accounted for up to 79% of HIV transmissions in Senegal between 2012 and 2021. Senegal has built one of Africa's strongest HIV prevention systems, and a big part of that work involves reaching men who have sex with men, sex workers, and other groups at higher risk.

The new laws put that system in danger. Alice Bordaçarre of the International Federation for Human Rights warned that organizations doing HIV prevention could be accused of "promoting" LGBTQ+ rights under Senegal's new law. Amadou Diouf helped run a shelter in Dakar for LGBTQ+ people who needed emergency help. He fled to the Gambia in February 2026 after being attacked by neighbors and family members. The shelter shut down because staff no longer felt safe.

Anthony Oluoch of Pan Africa ILGA, a group that campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights across Africa, said the laws are more about politics than genuine public demand. The trend is being reinforced by cross-border organizing. A group called the African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty — a forum that has shaped anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the continent — held its first three annual meetings in Uganda. Next year it will meet in Burkina Faso, then Eswatini, bringing the forum to West and southern Africa for the first time.

That conference network has roots in the United States. American religious-right groups have helped build a global network that shares ideas and funding to restrict gay and trans rights, according to reporting from 2023. Conservative campaigners have traveled to "family values" conferences in Africa to share strategies with local allies who oppose abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. A Guardian editorial in March 2024 noted that campaigners identified US evangelists as fueling discrimination and hatred across the continent. This is not only happening in Africa: Slovakia changed its constitution in October 2025 to recognize only male and female sexes, making adoption almost impossible for same-sex couples, and far-right politicians in Europe have increasingly used anti-trans legislation for political gain.

The broader context here helps explain why this is happening now. The three countries that newly criminalized same-sex relations — Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso — are all under military rule, where lawmakers face no opposition or public debate. Burkina Faso framed its law as a defense of sovereignty against the West, which fits with the juntas' broader anti-French, anti-Western stance. In short, LGBTQ+ rights have become a way for these governments to claim nationalist legitimacy. Senegal and Ghana are different: they are democracies where leaders are elected. The fact that they are pushing similar laws suggests anti-LGBTQ+ measures have become a political tool that works across very different kinds of governments. The next test will be whether Ghana's president signs the bill into law, and whether Senegal's HIV prevention system — long seen as a model for the continent — can survive a law that effectively makes its own outreach work illegal.