Human rights groups and Western countries have condemned Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye for his anti-gay remarks on Friday, in which he suggested that gay couples should be stoned to death in public.
Ndayishimiye, who is a Catholic, also attacked Western countries that pressure other nations to respect gay rights or face aid cuts, saying that they should “keep their help”. He said that homosexuality was an “abominable practice” and that Burundians living abroad who are gay should “not come back”.
Burundi, a conservative Christian country in East Africa, has outlawed homosexuality since 2009 and imposes prison terms of up to two years for same-sex acts.
In March this year, the authorities arrested 24 people for “homosexual practices” in a crackdown on the gay community.
Burundi is among several East African countries that have a history of persecuting and stigmatizing gay people, often influenced by conservative Muslims and Christians.
Uganda, for instance, recently passed one of the world’s toughest laws against homosexuality, which has triggered sanctions and protests from the international community.
Ndayishimiye came to power in June 2020 after the death of president Pierre Nkurunziza and has been praised for slowly ending Burundi’s isolation under his predecessor’s violent and chaotic rule.
However, he has not improved the country’s poor human rights record and the country of 12 million people remains one of the poorest in the world.
