Politics

Ghana: President Akufo-Addo yet to receive anti-LGBTQ bill

Published

2 months ago

March 5, 2024

President Nana Akufo-Addo has stated that an anti-LGBTQ bill that was voted on by Ghana’s parliament last week has not yet reached his desk.

Although the president maintained that Ghana would not renege on its human rights record in his initial remarks following the bill’s passage, he also mentioned that the bill had been challenged at the Supreme Court.

The country’s ministry of finance warned on Tuesday that if it became law, the measure might sabotage foreign aid for the West African nation.

“I have learned that, today, a challenge has been mounted at the Supreme Court,” Akufo-Addo said in a statement.

“In the circumstances, it would be as well for all of us to hold our hands and await the decision of the Court before any action is taken,” he added.

According to a document quoted by Reuters on Monday, the finance ministry stated that if the bill was passed, it may result in a loss of $3.8 billion in World Bank financing over the next five to six years, derailing a $3 billion IMF loan package.

The bill would become law only if President Akufo-Addo signed it. The measure that will tighten the crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ identities and those who support them was unanimously approved by lawmakers on February 28.

There are strict laws in place in a number of African nations that discriminate against individuals who identify as LGBTQ. Hakainde Hichilema, the president of Zambia, issued a warning to supporters of the LGBTQ movement last year, urging them to stop endorsing homosexuality and insisting that the nation “maintain laws that abhor alien orientations like gayism and lesbianism.”

Legislator Sam George of Ghana has also been outspokenly critical of the group; he recently criticised the US Vice President for her support of African acceptance of the LGBTQ community.

In 2006, South Africa became the first and remains the only African country to legalize same-sex marriage, with a constitution that also protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Others, like Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius and Seychelles all have laws in favour of the community in Africa.

South Africa, which has a constitution that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation, was the first and only African nation to legalise same-sex marriage in 2006. Others, such as the laws of Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, are favourable to the African community.

Related Topics:Featured Ghana LGBTQ President Akufo

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

1 hour ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

2 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.