Gambia

Thousands celebrated in the streets in an unprecedented display of disdain for the president’s 22 year rule.

“”The climate of fear worsened over the last 12 months, with people perceived to be gay or lesbian increasingly targeted,” said Amnesty’s West Africa researcher Sabrina Mahtani.

Jennifer Lukawsk recently served as the registered foreign agent for Gambia, a western African regime known for its human rights abuses, including repeated threats to behead gay people.

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice condemned on Saturday the president of Gambia’s pledge to slit the throats of gay men in his country as “unconscionable.”

Jammeh is one of Africa’s most vocal anti-gay leaders and has previously threatened to behead sexual minorities found in his country.

The decision to drop Gambia from special trade status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000 came amid news that three Gambian men had been arrested and accused of homosexuality.

WASHINGTON — The White House is admonishing Gambia for human rights abuses and says it’s deeply concerned by the government’s failure to protect citizens. White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan says Gambia’s government won’t let a U.N. investigator probe reports of torture and detention of people based on their sexual orientation or political views.

DAKAR, Senegal — The Gambian government has lashed out at Western donor nations that have criticized a new law that punishes some homosexual acts with life in prison. The European Union and the United States recently expressed dismay at the law and discrimination against gay people in the West African country.

DAKAR, Senegal — The U.S. State Department has condemned the decision by Gambia’s president to approve a law imposing life imprisonment for some homosexual acts.

DAKAR, Senegal — The president of Gambia has signed a bill into law that calls for life imprisonment for some homosexual acts, the latest African country to codify harsh penalties for the gay community.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast A Gambian lawmaker says the National Assembly has passed a bill imposing life imprisonment for some homosexual acts. Minority leader Samba Jallow said Monday the bill brings life sentences for “aggravated homosexuality.” A draft bill seen by The Associated Press contains language identical to a controversial anti-gay bill signed i…

BANJUL, Gambia — Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh is threatening to kill asylum seekers who cite the country’s anti-gay laws and tarnish his image as a leader, reports African press agency APA.

DAKAR, Senegal — Last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni met in his office with a team of U.S.-based rights activists concerned about legislation that would impose life sentences for some homosexual acts. South African retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu joined them by phone, pointing out similarities between Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill and racist laws enforced under South Africa’s former apartheid government.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday denounced remarks by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh that LGBTQ people are “vermin” and that Gambia’s government would tackle them in “the same way it fights malaria-causing mosquitoes.”

BANJUL, Gambia — Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh said Tuesday that LGBTQ people are “vermin” and said his government would tackle them in the same way it fights malaria-causing mosquitoes.

UNITED NATIONS — The president of Gambia is using his address to the United Nations General Assembly to attack gays and lesbians, calling homosexuality one of the three “biggest threats to human existence.”

Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh, speaking Thursday night at the opening of the country’s Parliament in Banjul, used the occasion to send out another warning to gays, saying they are not allowed in Gambia, and if caught, “will regret” being born.