Across West Africa, a coordinated legislative movement is rapidly narrowing the space in which LGBTQ+ people can exist — not as the spontaneous expression of local values, but as a calculated political project shaped by military governments, opportunistic leaders, and transnational Christian organizations. From Senegal to Ghana, from Niger to Burkina Faso, laws are being written, conferences are being held, and charters are being drafted with a shared grammar of exclusion. What is unfolding is not merely a regional trend but a reminder of how vulnerable communities become instruments of power
West Africa's anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown accelerates amid political opportunism
Transgender women detained without trial and beaten by military units; LGBTQ+ individuals arrested, entrapped by police, and forced to flee countries; approximately 100 Senegalese people displaced to neighboring Gambia.