Tanzania’s deputy health minister Hamisi Kigwangalla has threatened to publish a list of gay people allegedly “selling their bodies” online, as part of the government’s crackdown on what they call the “homosexuality syndicate”.
“I will publish a list of gay people selling their bodies online,” Kigwangalla wrote in a Twitter post, according to a translation.
“Those who think this campaign is a joke are wrong. The government has long arms and it will arrest all those involved quietly. Once arrested they will help us find others.”
Last week, the country accused a number of the country’s non-government health centres of “promoting” gay sex and stopped them from providing HIV and AIDS services to “key populations”.
“We have suspended the provision of HIV and AIDS services at less than 40 drop-in centres for key populations operated by NGOs countrywide after it was established that the centres were promoting homosexuality, which is against Tanzania’s laws,” the country’s health minister Ummy Mwalimu announced last week.
According to official statistics, around 25% of Tanzanian men who have sex with men are living with HIV.
Homosexuality is illegal in 38 of 54 countries in Africa, and is punishable by death in Mauritania, Sudan and Somalia, according to Amnesty International.
Gay people in Tanzania face a punishment of up to 30 years in prison for homosexual activity.
(Photo via Twitter)
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