Lesbians flee to Senegal as Gambia cracks down on homosexuality

By Misha Hussain in DAKAR | Senegal | 21 Nov 2014

Gambia has drafted a list of 200 homosexuals to arrest and imprison under new anti-gay laws

When 12-year-old Teresa had her first kiss at a party in London with another girl, the young Gambian had no idea how her sexual orientation would make life an everyday struggle when she returned home.

Eight years later, she is on the run from Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s men in black, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), who have put her at the top of a list of 200 homosexuals to arrest and imprison under new anti-gay laws passed by the government in October.

“I know a lot of people. The idea is that if they get me, they can torture me and I’ll then give them the names of other lesbians and gays,” Teresa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Dakar where she is seeking asylum.

Teresa and a friend managed to escape when a police officer tipped her off that the NIA was about to intensify its search for homosexuals. Since the crackdown started on Nov 7, the NIA has arrested at least nine lesbians and five gays, according to Amnesty International.

Jammeh drew international condemnation at the U.N. General Assembly last year by attacking gay rights as a threat to humanity. He later described gays as vermin and said his government will fight them like malaria-causing mosquitoes.