“We the government and people of The Gambia hereby make it very clear to the European Union and any outside bloc that wants to impose acceptance of homosexuals as a pre-condition for aid that we will never accept that conditionality no matter how much aid is involved,” Gambian Foreign Minister Bala Garba Jahumpa said.
Homosexuality is officially prohibited in the Gambia, where it is a subject of penalty up to 14 years, despite calls from the West to respect LGBT rights.
Moreover, Gambian president Yahya Jammeh has recently promulgated a new law, establishing the crime of "aggravated homosexuality", punishable by the life imprisonment. He was criticized by several NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. These NGOs were concerned that the new law, written in vague terms, targets people with HIV or those, who are living openly with their homosexuality.
The United States also expressed deep concern over the signing of this law in a country, which has long been criticized for the low level of protection of human rights, deemed by the US as insufficient.
