Africa
Pan Africa ILGA urges authorities to investigate anti-LGBTQ, anti-intersex murders
Sheila Lumumba’s death in Kenya in April among cases cited
Pan Africa ILGA once again urged authorities across the continent to investigate the murders of LGBTQ and intersex people and to work to reduce violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The organization — which comprises 268 groups that work for LGBTQ and intersex rights across Africa — in a report it issued in July noted a number of high profile murders that have taken place this year. They include Sheila Lumumba, a 25-year-old Kenyan woman who was murdered in April, Pinky Shongwe, a 32-year-old South African who was stabbed to death in March, and Obisike Donald Ibe, a 31-year-old doctor in Nigeria who was slain in January.
Lumumba, a lesbian who was reportedly targeted because of her sexual orientation, was raped before her murder. A South African court in April sentenced two men to life in prison for raping a 19-year-old lesbian woman in 2020
“LGBTIQ+ persons deserve to thrive without fear of being persecuted,” said Pan Africa ILGA Executive Director Nate Brown. “The recent murder of Sheila in Kenya reflects the realities of the LGBTIQ+ community in Africa. It bears mentioning that unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents. They are part of a pattern of attacks, violence and murders against LGBTIQ+ persons across the continent.”
Pan Africa ILGA board co-chairs Star Rugori and Barbra Wangere at the same time said the organization is in the process of developing a crisis reporting center that will document human rights violations against LGBTQ and intersex people in Africa and advocate for increased protections and respect for them.
“The inhumane violations and slaughter of LGBTIQ+ persons should prompt thorough investigations, aimed at prosecuting those responsible,” said Rugori and Wangere in a joint statement. “Government needs to protect activists and the greater LGBTIQ+ community and to call a halt to the impunity that links this chain of vicious murders. LGBTIQ+ lives matter and should be protected at all costs just like the rest of our African citizens.”
Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of the Catholic Diocese of Mthatha in South Africa during an interview with the Catholic Information Service for Africa said people who identify as LGBTQ or intersex should be treated with dignity.
“The most we can do, for now, is to grapple with it, to try and understand, and to see how to continue treating these people with the dignity that they have because, despite their sexual orientation, they are still children of God, they have the same dignity,” said Sipuka. “I have known people, credible people, authentic people who are gay or lesbian, very intelligent, very integral people, very committed people, very loving people, and so it is difficult to say that there’s something wrong with this one, you know because some of them really are in terms of integrity full of admiration, the way they are as a person that is difficult for me to condemn them, and say that there is something wrong with them.”
Sipuka also touched the issue of marriage equality, which is usually a catalyst for homophobic statements.
“The process and teaching of the church so far is still that marriage is between a man and a woman, but on the other hand, it does not mean at all that we should despise or think of people who are gay and lesbian as any less than heterosexual people,” said Sipuka.
I cannot say you can go ahead and get married because I don’t have the mandate to do that. I do things on the mandate of the church. I am open to hearing more on how pastorally to deal with this matter. I am also open for it to be discussed theologically. In the end, the teachings about the church are always about love even exactly everything that they touch is about love,” added Sipuka.
South Africa
US-funded South African LGBTQ groups curtail operations
Suspension of most American foreign aid jeopardizes HIV prevention efforts
Two South African prominent LGBTQ organizations have become the latest victims President Donald Trump’s executive order that froze most U.S. foreign aid that the U.S. Agency for International Development disbursed.
Prior to the executive order, USAID had been playing a pivotal role in enhancing the rights of the LGBTQ community in South Africa through financial incentives. Since the executive order, many LGBTQ organizations have been struggling to remain afloat and provide services.
OUT LGBT Well-being on March 31 announced the closure of its Engage Men’s Health program.
The program offered stigma-free HIV and related health services through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which USAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded.
“For over a decade, OUT has been privileged to receive support through PEPFAR. In recent years, we proudly became the first local community organization to successfully graduate to direct recipient status of this funding from USAID. We are deeply grateful to the American people for their years of support,” sand OUT LGBT Well-being Executive Director Dawie Nel. “However, we regret the sudden and devastating impact of this funding withdrawal, not just on us, but on the thousands of individuals whose health and well-being depended on these services.”
Nel said Engage Men’s Health had managed to help 2,000 men who have sex with men stay on life-saving antiretroviral therapy, and provided 4,000 others with PrEP to prevent HIV infection.
“With these services now ending, we fear that HIV will spread more rapidly and that many will struggle to access the care they need,” added Nel. “While this marks the end of Engage Men’s Health, OUT LGBT Well-being will remain open. In the coming months, we will refocus our work and explore new ways to continue serving our community.”
Motlatsi Mkalala, board chair of Access Chapter 2, said USAID’s dismantlement has caused irreparable damage, which prompted the organization to close some of its branches and layoff some of its employees.
“As of the 1st of April 2025, operations across our various offices in the provinces of the Eastern Cape, Free State, Northwest, and Mpumalanga ceased,” said Mkalala. “The limited services at the headquarters in Pretoria will continue to run, but by a very small team.”
Emma Louise Powell, a South African MP and the Democratic Alliance party’s national spokesperson on international relations and co-operation, said PEPFAR since 2003 has played a transformative role in South Africa’s fight against HIV/AIDS, saving millions of lives and bolstering the country’s public health infrastructure. Powell said the cuts will prove disastrous.
“Given the critical nature of this life saving treatment, both government departments and non-profit organizations dependent on PEPFAR and related USAID funding across South Africa need more time to prepare for any potential phase-out of long-standing HIV/AIDS resourcing,” said Powell. “We call upon the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and relevant policymakers to swiftly reinstate funding.”
Iranti spokesperson Mogau Makitla said Trump’s executive order is going to lead to the closure of many LGBTQ organizations. Makitla called upon the South African government to immediately step in and fill the funding void.
“South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS, whilst the government has made significant strides towards ending the pandemic, we anticipate that the closure of the aforementioned facilities will subsequently result in an increase in the spread of HIV/AIDS due to the decrease in management and mitigation services,” said Makitla. “Gender-affirming healthcare services, which have always been limited are also under threat as a result of the halt.”
Africa
Report: Anti-LGBTQ discrimination has cost East African countries billions
Open for Business highlights Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda
The economies of four East African countries are losing more than $5 billion a year because of discrimination against LGBTQ people.
The 80-page report that Open for Business, a coalition of leading global organizations that champion LGBTQ inclusion, released in late March focuses on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. It attributes the losses to anti-homosexuality laws, and predicts more economic costs if lawmakers implement other harsh anti-LGBTQ measures.
The report notes Uganda is losing $2.4 billion, or 5.2 percent of its GDP, annually because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act that took effect in 2023. Open for Business last October revealed the country had already lost $1.6 billion in foreign direct investment, donor aid, trade, tourism, public health and productivity after President Yoweri Museveni signed the law.
Kenya is losing $1.5 billion, or 1.38 percent of its GDP.
The report warns that enacting the pending Family Protection Bill would cost the country an additional $6.3 billion, or 5.8 percent of its GDP, annually. Opposition MP Peter Kaluma, who has introduced the measure, in January claimed the Biden-Harris administration had blocked it and vowed to have fellow MPs pass it after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Kaluma is a strong supporter of Trump and the Republican Party’s opposition to LGBTQ rights and other far-right conservative ideologies.
Tanzania is losing $1.1 billion, or 1.33 percent of its GDP, because of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Rwanda is losing $45 million, or .32 percent of its GDP.
Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda unlike the other three countries, but consensual same-sex sexual relationships remain taboo. Queer Rwandans also face stigma, discrimination, social exclusion, and arbitrary detention.
“A series of private member bills in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania have threatened to pull the region back in terms of progress and human rights for LGBTQ+ people, and damage both the ease of doing business and their international reputation,” states the Open for Business CEO Dominic Arnall.
Arnall notes his organization’s extensive engagement with businesses across East Africa over the last five years has always linked harmful anti-LGBTQ laws to impacts on a country’s investment prospects.
“The finding lays bare an uncomfortable truth: That laws that harm the LGBTQ+ community are standing in the way of prosperity and growth for all citizens in the region,” he said.
The report calls for LGBTQ inclusion as part of the region’s broader economic development agenda.
The Open for Business report notes anti-gay violence and discrimination in Tanzania has been on the rise since the late-President John Magufuli came to power in 2015. The country’s punitive anti-homosexuality law with a 30-year prison sentence for consensual same-sex sexual relations was already in place, but queer Tanzanians were generally not systematically targeted.
“Reporting of neighbors or community members for suspected homosexuality is frequent and law enforcement officers have been known to pose as members of the LGBTQ+ community to entrap and blackmail LGBTQ+ individuals,” states the report.
It also notes the Tanzanian government’s crackdown on websites and social media accounts that promote LGBTQ rights and threatening the arrests of administrators who allow such content. The report concludes this suppression has caused queer people to live in fear and isolation.
Religious organizations, particularly Christian churches in Tanzania, also champion anti-LGBTQ rhetoric by encouraging their followers against tolerating homosexuality and transgender people. Politicians, meanwhile, use anti-LGBTQ narratives to gain support during campaigns.
While Rwanda stands out as the only East African country in which homosexuality is not criminalized and has foreign donors implementing programs that target the queer community, discussing LGBTQ rights in public is rare and same-sex relationships are not legally recognized. The Open for Business report notes this situation creates legal ambiguity and a fragile social environment for queer Rwandans.
“Several LGBTQ+ rights organizations have emerged in recent years, mostly in Kigali, although they do not always identify themselves as LGBTQ+ associations and are rarely formally registered, making it difficult for them to receive funding,” reads the report.
The Rwandan government has rejected calls to criminalize homosexuality, which it considers a “private matter.” It has also been adamant against efforts to protect queer people for fear of domestic opposition and a desire not to politicize the issue like in neighboring countries.
Kenya, like Rwanda, has for a long time been considered more receptive of queer people, “as long as LGBTQ members are not ‘too loud.’”
Anyone convicted under Kenya’s colonial-era sodomy law could face up to 14 years in prison. Efforts to enact a harsh anti-homosexuality law and anti-LGBTQ protests that religious leaders, politicians, and activists have organized have increased homophobia in the country.
“LGBTQ individuals report significant difficulties in securing formal employment, which pushes many of them into more precarious livelihoods in the informal sector,” states the report.
Namibia
Namibia’s new president promises equality, ‘prosperity for all’
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is country’s first female head of state
March 21 was a historic day for Namibia with the inauguration of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the country’s first female president who resoundingly won last November’s presidential election.
Nandi-Ndaitwah in her inaugural speech vowed to uphold the rights of every Namibian by bringing shared prosperity for all, and pledged to enhance gender parity across the country.
“The task facing me, as the fifth president of the Republic of Namibia, is to preserve the gains of our independence on all fronts and to ensure that the unfinished agenda of economic and social advancement of our people is carried forward with vigor and determination to bring about shared, balanced prosperity for all,” she said. “I am optimistic that, as a nation, we can make a success of our country. We must work together as a united people with one heart and one mind.”
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s remarks come at a time when LGBTQ Namibians face the possibility of being criminalized.
MP Jerry Ekandjo in 2023 tabled the Marriage Amendment Private Members’ Bill and Spouse Bill, which would have made same-sex marriages illegal, regardless of whether they had been legally performed outside Namibia. Those who would have violated the proposed law would have faced up to six years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both.
Former President Nangolo Mbumba earlier this month refused to sign the bills into law because a majority of MPs did not pass them, and they presented constitutional challenges. Former Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security Minister Albert Kawana last July tabled the marriage proposal in parliament, and labeled the two bills as redundant.
The Marriage Bill, which became law on Oct. 2, 2024, exactly four months after Kawana tabled it, repealed the Marriage Act of 1961 and all its subsequent amendments, including the Supreme Court decision which recognized same-sex marriages legally performed outside Namibia.
The Marriage Act of 2024 says a marriage or marital union between persons of the same sex wherever conducted, or a marriage or marital union conducted in a country other than Namibia which cannot be validly conducted in Namibia is illegal. Anyone who violates the law can face up to four years in prison, a $1,000 fine, or both.
“This law impacts all Namibians, from stricter marriage age requirements to mandatory public notification of intended unions,” said Equal Rights Namibia, a Namibian LGBTQ advocacy group. “Its effects extend beyond same-sex couples, complicating cross-national marriages and limiting personal freedoms. Equal Namibia calls for strategic litigation support and Namibians whose rights are violated by this unconstitutional law to join us in our fight.”
Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain decriminalized following last July’s landmark High Court ruling that struck down Namibia’s apartheid-era sodomy laws.
“The Namibia High Court’s decision to overturn these laws and decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual conduct is a victory for love, for equality and for human rights,” said Khanyo Farise, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa. “This ruling is a step toward ending discrimination in equal access to health care and other social services and ensuring that all people in Namibia can choose their partners without fear of reprisals and live their lives in dignity.”
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