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Burkina Faso has been under military rule since two successive
coups in 2022 and is part of a confederation with juntas in
neighboring Mali and Niger.
All three interim governments have so far failed to hold
elections and turned away from traditional Western allies.
In a statement late on Wednesday, Burkina Faso's junta said it
had adopted the amended family code draft in a weekly council of
ministers overseen by interim military leader Ibrahim Traore.
"From now on, homosexuality and related practices are prohibited
and punishable by law," interim Justice Minister Edasso Rodrique
Bayala said in a presidency statement on the meeting.
For the law to come into force, it will need to pass a
parliamentary vote and then be promulgated by Traore.
There has been a further clampdown on LGBTQ rights in Africa
over the past 14 months. Uganda signed one of the world's
toughest anti-LGBTQ laws in May last year, while lawmakers in
Ghana unanimously passed legislation in February that
intensifies the repression of LGBTQ people.
The daughter of Cameroon's president, Brenda Biya, came out as a
lesbian last month and has since called for laws that ban
homosexuality in the country to be changed.
(Reporting by Dakar bureau; Writing by Sofia Christensen;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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