(LifeSiteNews) — Burkina Faso has voted to outlaw homosexual acts.
The BBC reports that the African country approved the ban on sodomy on September 1, after a unanimous vote by the transitional parliament.
Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala told Burkina Faso’s state-funded media that “the law provides for a prison sentence of between two and five years as well as fines.”
He also said that foreigners who are caught in violation of the law would additionally be deported.
In order to become law, the bill still needs to be signed by the country’s president, military leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
Burkina Faso has been ruled by a military junta under Captain Traoré since 2022. The country is majority Muslim but has a sizeable Christian minority of around 26 percent. Approximately 20 percent of the population is Catholic.
The African nation follows many other countries on the continent that have criminalized homosexual acts. According to the BBC, more than 60 percent of African nations currently outlaw these unnatural acts.
In 2024, neighboring Mali also criminalized sodomy. Uganda enacted the strictest anti-sodomy law in 2023, prescribing the death penalty for cases of “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes the raping of underage boys. In 2024, Uganda’s constitutional court upheld most of the provisions in the anti-sodomy law, infuriating the Biden administration.
Homosexuality results in serious health harms, including a nearly 30-times higher risk of HIV and elevated risks of other STDs and cancers, such as anal cancer. Moreover, as the Catholic Church teaches, homosexuality is a disordered sexual practice and therefore cannot be considered a “human right.”
Uganda and other African countries have faced immense pressure from liberal Western leaders after enacting these laws.
The World Bank withheld loans from Uganda over its stance against homosexuality, forcing the country to turn to Communist China for financial support. However, the World Bank lifted the ban in June of this year.