Burundi’s President Says Gay People Should Be Stoned

[Devlyn]

Burundi's President Says Gay People Should Be Stoned

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/world/africa/burundi-president-gay-people-stoned.html

Abdi Latif Dahir    Dec. 31, 2023

President Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi has called on citizens to stone gay people. President Evariste Ndayishimiye also railed against Western governments that he said had conditioned providing aid on accepting gay rights. His remarks do not carry the force of law.

Burundi's president said that gay people in his country should be stoned, amid a widening crackdown against L.G.B.T.Q. people in the East African nation that is adding to the anti-gay sentiments sweeping across the region and the wider African continent.

While President Evariste Ndayishimiye's remarks do not have the force of law, they are an escalation of provocative statements directed at L.G.B.T.Q. people elsewhere by African government officials.

Mr. Ndayishimiye said that gay people should not be accepted in Burundi, a conservative nation where consensual same-sex intimacy among adults can already be penalized with up to two years in prison.

"I think that if we find these kinds of people in Burundi, it is better to take them to a stadium and stone them," Mr. Ndayishimiye said on Friday during an event in the country's eastern Cankuzo Province, where he answered questions from journalists and members of the public. "That's what they deserve."