The West African nation of Niger has become the latest country to introduce harsh legislation criminalising LGBTQ+ people.
According to AP, the country’s military junta has confirmed that a new penal code containing provisions targeting LGBTQ+ communities has now come into effect.
Under the code, anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) acts” faces between five and 10 years in prison, as well as a fine.
The code imposes the same penalty on anyone who “artificially changes or attempts to change their birth sex” or attempts to enter into a same-sex marriage.
Same-sex marriage participation criminalised
The legislation also criminalises anyone who organises, officiates, witnesses, celebrates or participates in a same-sex marriage ceremony.
According to Erasing 76 Crimes, Niger has now become the 66th country in the world to criminalise LGBTQ+ people.
Niger’s new penal code forms part of a growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across West Africa.
Mali criminalised homosexuality in late 2024, followed by Burkina Faso in 2025.
More recently, Senegal adopted a harsh anti-LGBTQ+ law in March, while Ghana’s Parliament passed its own sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ bill in May.
Right-wing influence fuelling anti-LGBTQ+ laws
Support for these laws across the region has been fuelled by populist claims that targeting LGBTQ+ people protects Africa from a so-called Western agenda promoting sexual and gender diversity.
However, activists and researchers have repeatedly linked the movement to well-funded European and American right-wing religious groups that support campaigns aimed at restricting LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights across Africa.
For LGBTQ+ people in Niger, the new penal code marks a severe escalation of legal danger, exposing queer communities to imprisonment, fines, state surveillance and increased social hostility.
The law also places Niger within a broader regional pattern where anti-LGBTQ+ politics are being framed as cultural protection, while human rights advocates warn that the real result is fear, criminalisation and violence.
