Senegal’s New Anti-Gay Law Threatens Decades of HIV Success

Published: 07 April 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

The vibrant streets of Dakar now hold a heavy silence for many vulnerable citizens. Amadou Ndiaye has spent the last two months watching his entire community slowly disappear today. Many friends have fled across borders or have been arrested by the local police force. Others have simply gone silent to protect themselves from the rising tide of local hate. Ndiaye serves as the secretary-general of a vital non-governmental organisation called the young community union. This group operates a refuge providing emergency shelter for people facing severe homophobic violence daily. In February Ndiaye was attacked by his own neighbours and members of his family too. He left Senegal for the Gambia to seek safety from the immediate physical danger there. The activist has since returned to Dakar but his essential services remain completely frozen now. All activities have stopped because the staff no longer feel safe in their own office. This personal tragedy reflects a wider crisis currently unfolding across the entire West African nation. Senegal has maintained one of the most resilient HIV prevention systems for many long decades. This success was built on reaching men who have sex with men and workers. These key populations are now being swept up in a wave of targeted police arrests. Hostility against homosexuality is rising sharply and the legal landscape is changing for the worse.

On 27 March President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed a very harsh and restrictive new law. This legislation doubles the maximum prison term to ten years for same-sex sexual acts today. It also criminalises anything that could be interpreted as the promotion of gay rights now. Alice Bordaçarre works at the gender equality desk of the International Federation for Human Rights. She warns that any organisation working on fundamental rights could be targeted by this law. HIV prevention efforts could be considered as promoting LGBTQ+ rights under this very broad framing. The law risks criminalising legitimate human rights activities performed by lawyers and health workers too. Journalists and various NGOs are also at risk of being silenced by the state authorities. Bordaçarre believes the situation is very dangerous for the future of Senegalese civil society groups. Between early February authorities arrested at least twelve men in Dakar under the penal code. Article 319 criminalises same-sex relations as acts against nature which carries a heavy prison sentence. A television presenter named Pape Cheikh Diallo was detained at a hotel by the police. The authorities used his private phone to identify and trace every person connected to him.

According to the HIV Justice Network more than sixty people have been detained since February. These charges carry a sentence of between one and five years in a state prison. Forty-two of those cases are directly linked to the arrest of the television presenter mentioned. Sylvie Beaumont works for the HIV Justice Network monitoring global criminalisation of this health condition. She says arrests typically surge during periods of political pressure or public moral panic lately. However Beaumont notes that the latest wave of arrests is unprecedented in the African region. The authorities are now using forced HIV testing on every person they arrest for homosexuality. They are also adding intentional transmission charges for those who test positive for the virus. This represents a new and very worrying development in the legal strategy of the state. Based on media reports at least twenty-two detainees have been identified as being HIV positive. These individuals face further penalties for intentional transmission regardless of their actual health status today. HIV prevalence in the general adult population of Senegal remains quite low at 0.5 percent. However the rate rises to nearly twenty-eight percent among men who have sex with men.

National research suggests rates as high as fifty percent among this group in Dakar areas. A 2024 study estimated that male key populations accounted for most HIV transmissions in Senegal. The impact of the February arrests on local healthcare services was immediate and very severe. A rapid assessment by the national council recorded a thirty-five percent decline in patient consultations. Nearly half of the patients reported suffering from deep depression or anxiety during this period. Dr Safiatou Thiam says the decline was linked to the panic within the vulnerable community. Cécile Kazatchkine of the HIV Legal Network believes the environment will become even more hostile. She fears that no one will be able to reach out to patients any more. People will be too scared to come for treatment or testing at the clinics. The transmission law in Senegal actually has very high proof requirements for any criminal conviction. There must be evidence the accused knew their status and acted with specific harmful intent. Those on antiviral medication cannot transmit the virus and should not meet this legal threshold. Effective treatment renders the virus incapable of transmission which is a scientific fact for everyone.

Having sex while being HIV positive is not actually criminalised in the country of Senegal. This fact remains true even under the new law signed by the president last month. Yet forced testing appears to be happening routinely during these recent police arrest operations now. A positive status automatically triggers intentional transmission charges regardless of the actual medical evidence provided. One NGO supporting key populations was advised to close its offices and work remotely instead. Peer mediators who support others through their treatment have stopped working due to personal fear. Patients are terrified of being arrested and are avoiding the medical centres entirely right now. Dr Thiam fears that the epidemic will return if these trends continue into next year. This crisis is unfolding within a response already weakened by major global funding cuts lately. A freeze on foreign assistance in January forced a halt to community-based programmes in Senegal. A national coalition coordinating HIV treatment saw activities suspended across hundreds of its member organisations. Contracts for community mediators who support testing and treatment were terminated across the entire country. Services such as condom distribution and patient follow-up have been scaled back very significantly now.

On 18 March UNAIDS said it was deeply concerned about the implications of this legislation. The organisation urged the president not to sign the bill to protect public health interests. New HIV infections in the country rose by thirty-six percent over the last fourteen years. Senegal is one of only four countries in the region where infections are still climbing. These arrests have not been confined to the capital city of Dakar during this time. Police departments across the whole country have been involved in these targeted health-based arrests lately. The names and HIV status of the accused have been published in the national press. Some wives of married detainees felt compelled to publish their own negative test results publicly. They did this to distance themselves from the social stigma attached to the virus now. Some men have decided to leave Senegal entirely to find safety in other nearby countries. Neighbouring nations like the Gambia and Mauritania are not risk-free for these vulnerable people either. These countries often have even stricter laws than Senegal regarding same-sex relations and private life. People have gone anyway because the immediate fear in Dakar has become too much today.

Reports suggest that police are monitoring border crossings to prevent people from leaving the country. Asylum applications to France have increased as people seek a way out of the crisis. The Senegalese Ministry of Justice did not respond to requests for comment on these issues. Academics in the city of Dakar also declined to discuss the situation for this report. Kazatchkine says that fear is widespread because the prison sentences are very long and harsh. A person can receive three years just for saying something perceived as promoting gay rights. For Ndiaye the question is whether the prevention system can survive this new legal era. He wonders if the fear will drive every key community underground and away from help. People’s private statuses are being disclosed and their sexual orientations are being made public now. These citizens are being denied access to basic health services in their own home country. The community is devastated by the loss of progress made over the last thirty years. The future of health in Senegal now hangs in a very delicate and dangerous balance. Experts believe that only a reversal of these laws can prevent a major health disaster. Without international pressure the progress made against HIV may disappear before the end of 2026.

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