Burkina Faso has announced a law criminalizing homosexuality.
“Henceforth homosexuality and associated practices will be punished by the law,” Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayalawas quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
It makes the West African nation the latest of the continent’s 54 countries to follow a trend in banning same-sex relations. There are now only 21 African nations that do not explicitly prohibit same-sex relations. Uganda imposed the continent’s most severe laws in May.
However, Brenda Biya, the daughter of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, came out as a lesbian in a post on her Instagram account posting a photo of her kissing her girlfriend and saying: “I’m crazy about you and want the world to know.”
“There are plenty of people in the same situation as me who suffer because of who they are,” she said. “If I can give them hope, help them feel less alone, if I can send love, I’m happy.”
