On Friday, May 22, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko delivered a forceful defense of his government’s policies during a fifth round of parliamentary question-and-answer sessions since the Pastef took office.
Addressed on the recent legislation that imposes harsher prison sentences for same-sex relations—amid reports of over a hundred arrests in just three months and public pleas from African intellectuals published on May 18—Sonko categorically ruled out any suspension of the law.
With the stated goal of curbing what he described as the “spreading phenomenon” of homosexuality, he called for the judiciary to enforce the law with “full, impartial, and absolute” rigor. He also emphasized that no one would be spared, hinting at recent high-profile detentions within his own political circle.
In response to international condemnation of the law, Sonko dismissed Western criticism outright, singling out Paris by name and accusing certain capitals of engaging in “empty posturing,” particularly in France.
He went further, accusing unnamed Western powers of attempting to impose homosexuality globally through what he termed “control of media narratives.” His remarks culminated in a defiant declaration: “If they choose these practices, that is their concern—but we will not accept any lessons from them, not in the slightest.” He then issued a thinly veiled warning, stating bluntly: “If the law needs to be tightened further, it will be.”
