Nearly a week after a local administrator called for a crackdown on gay people living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s biggest city, the government is distancing itself from his remarks.
Gay and transgender people in Tanzania have gone into hiding fearing for their lives after a senior government official called on the public to report suspected homosexuals so that they could be arrested from early next week.
Residents in Tanzania’s biggest city have been urged to inform on their neighbours and friends ahead of a police operation to hunt down and jail homosexuals.
The regional governor of Tanzania's largest city, Dar es Salaam, has vowed to arrest people suspected of being gay by next week in an escalating crackdown on LGBT communities in the East African nation.
Far-right Brazilian Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, who once said he’d be “incapable of loving a homosexual son," will be sworn in as Brazil's president on Jan. 1.
The punitive legal environment combined with social stigma allows police abuse to go unchecked and prevents many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from reporting violence or getting medical care.
