Arrests in Uganda, Nigeria shine spotlight on grim state of LGBTQ rights across much of Africa

Human rights groups are concerned about recent crackdowns targeting LGBTQ people in parts of Africa under laws that restrict their very existence.

Police in Nigeria arrested more than 60 people in a raid on an apparent same-sex wedding early Monday, while Ugandan authorities are for the first time charging a man with "aggravated homosexuality," an offence that can be punishable by death under the country's anti-LGBTQ legislation.

Nigeria and Uganda — among 32 of the 54 African nations that criminalize same-sex relations — have some of the strictest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world. Observers say in addition to criminal penalties, such laws have a chilling effect on the day-to-day lives of members of the LGBTQ community.

"In Africa, homosexuality is seen as something that is an abomination," said Christopher Nkambwe, an LGBTQ activist who fled Uganda and came to Canada as a refugee in 2019. He is now executive director of African Centre for Refugees in Ontario – Canada, which assists LGBTQ and intersex people escaping persecution.

Although penalties aren't always imposed in every country, the situation across Africa is getting much more dangerous for LGBTQ people, according to activists like Nkambwe, and the enactment of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act earlier this year has emboldened lawmakers in other countries to pursue similarly harsh legislation.

Police in Nigeria's southern Delta state raided a ceremony at a hotel early Monday morning, initially arresting 200 people but ultimately detaining 67 of them.

Bright Edafe, a police spokesperson in southern Nigeria's Delta state, posted photos on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, showing how he "paraded" the "gay suspects" at a local police station.

Edafe told reporters that homosexuality "will never be tolerated" in the country and that police officers in Nigeria "cannot fold their hands" and watch gay people openly express their sexual orientation.

Nigeria enacted its Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act in 2013, making it illegal for same-sex individuals to marry, but it also restricts the public display of same-sex relationships.

Graeme Reid, director of the LGBT rights program at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said this "does seem to be one of the most significant arrests under the law," which punishes anyone who enters into a same-sex marriage or civil union with 14 years in prison, and anyone who facilitates or takes part in any such union with a 10-year sentence.

But the scope of the Nigerian law goes well beyond its very specific wording, he said, explaining that it has a "stifling effect" on LGBTQ organizations and individual activities.

It threatens 10 years in prison for anyone who operates or takes part in any sort of gay clubs or organizations, as well as anyone who makes a public display of same-sex relationships.

"The law has also had the effect of making LGBT people particularly vulnerable to extortion, to blackmail and the hesitation to report crimes to the police in case they themselves are implicated," the South African-born Reid said.

Although the Nigerian government's legislation does not impose the death penalty for homosexuality, there have been people sentenced to death in Sharia courts in predominantly Muslim states in the country's north.