Activist decries lack of aid for victims of homophobic violence in Senegal

‘I’m ashamed of the lack of solutions for LGBT+ people facing violence in my country.’

With political violence seizing the West African nation of Senegal as campaigning begins for the 2024 presidential election, Bocar Ba (pseudonym) a founder of the Senegalese LGBT advocacy group Collectif Free, says the crisis is particularly acute for LGBT people, who often face homophobic violence that is ignored by officials and aid groups. He details his experiences in this opinion piece.

By Bocar Ba

I’m a human rights defender, and I was even one of the founding members of the Collectif Free, which for a time embodied and symbolized the fight against LGBTphobia in Senegal. I left the organization early on, however, because its burgeoning notoriety turned the head of its leader, whose management was highly opaque. Three years later, I have to say that we’re back to square one and there’s a lack of care for people suffering from homophobia on the spot.

To put a point on it, LGBT+ people, who are among the key populations in the fight against HIV, benefit from screening and medical follow-up by civil society organizations. But when it comes to helping victims of homophobia who are beaten and injured, there’s no one help, and that scandalizes me.

People who are victims of homophobia are counted for statistical purposes as victims of gender-based violence (GBV). In fact, Senegal sends up-to-date data to the Alliance Francophone des Acteurs de Santé Contre le VIH et les Infections Virales Chroniques ou Émergentes (Francophone Alliance of Health Actors Against HIV and Chronic or Emerging Viral Infections – AFRAHIV).

However, when someone is kicked out and beaten up by their family and friends, there’s no help. We’re content to give international donors the statistics, but when it comes to providing vital aid to people who need hospitalization and are left with disabilities, there are no associations or organizations who answer the call.

It’s as if civil society and health organizations seem to be running away from a cumbersome cause. The need to help victims of homophobia, whatever their HIV status, has been identified for a long time, but action has not followed.

The reason I am voicing my concerns today is precisely so that I can make this plea, so that this cause returns to the top of the agenda for human rights organizations.

And just because the prospect has dissipated of Parliament increasing criminal penalties for homosexuality, with the forthcoming incarceration of Ousmane Sonko there’s no reason to expect that violence against LGBT+ people will cease. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Sonko, a candidate for President in the 2024 election, has campaigned on increasing penalties for LGBT people. On June 2, he was found not guilty of a rape charge but was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for “corruption of youth”, a charge that his supporters say were trumped up.],

I’m ashamed of the lack of solutions for LGBT+ people facing violence in my country.

What’s more, against a backdrop of widespread violence in Senegal, with several hundred injured and almost 23 killed between opposition supporters and armed civilians paid by the government, it’s easy to think that violence against homosexuals is being written off and made more invisible than ever, despite the fact that the state of the rule of law in Senegal has never been so dire as it is now.

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It used to be impossible to talk calmly about the human rights of sexual and gender minorities, but now it’s even possible to be kidnapped and extra-judicially executed for your ideas, by torturers who are no longer even members of the police force, since armed and purposely planned violence is now widespread among the civilian population.

The authorities are thus seeking to maintain a smokescreen of confusion and chaos, with the aim of terrorizing a population that does not agree with the political instrumentalization of justice.

But meanwhile, little Malamine Sarr (pseudonym), whose knee was recently crippled by his family and who can no longer sit up, is suffering excruciating pain, caused by homophobia. He was attacked on May 23.

He recently travelled to Gambia to seek protection from the High Commission for Refugees (HCR), as his religious family living in Tivaouane is very influential. However, the medical care on the spot was inadequate, and I even asked him to come back here to Senegal, where I look after him on my own dime, knowing that I can’t house him in my own home because of my neighborhood.

If a reputable organization is willing to take him in, I am ready to pass on any information that will help him obtain suitable medical assistance.

If you would like to write to Bocar Ba, please send an e-mail to the following address: info@76crimes.com.