Niger

In March 2025, Niger explicitly outlawed consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults for the first time. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA+) practices or any other unnatural behavior” are now prohibited under Article 25 of the Charter of Refoundation, adopted by the military junta almost two years after seizing power in July 2023. The charter governs public life in the country during a five-year transition period. As of writing, there are still no specific penalties for “LGBTQIA+ practices,” but a draft penal code circulated in 2023 seeks to impose maximum prison sentences of five years for engaging in or attempting same-sex sexual conduct, 20 years for conducting, officiating, or being a witness to a same-sex marriage ceremony, and five years for participating in or financing organizations “for homosexuals.”

Even before the adoption of this charter, in at least one case in 2023, authorities prosecuted two women for alleged same-sex intimacy under penal provisions punishing “public indecency” with up to three years of imprisonment (Article 276); when a judge acquitted them, the Ministry of Justice reassigned him to an administrative role in an apparent disciplinary measure. In addition, the existing penal code sets an unequal age of consent, fixing it at 21 for same-sex sexual acts (Article 282) and 13 for different-sex sexual acts (Article 278).

The military junta has sought to fuel moral panic around gender and sexuality, with the Education Minister declaring in October 2023 that the government intended to crack down on alleged attempts by “satanic circles, in collaboration with a foreign power and a small group of greedy Nigeriens” to introduce “LGBT practices and discourse” in the country, “particularly in the education sector.”

Trans people cannot change their legal gender markers in Niger. Intersex infants and children are not protected from nonconsensual medical interventions. LGBTIQ organizations exist in the country but cannot legally register and have to operate in secret, and the transition to military rule and increased targeting of human rights activists have likely made LGBTIQ organizing more difficult.

The 2021-2023 Afrobarometer ranks Niger among the worst countries in the world in terms of acceptance of sexual diversity, with 94.2 percent of respondents in the country claiming that they would dislike having “homosexuals” as neighbors. A 2022 survey showed that only 15 percent of respondents in Niger believed that the country was a good place for lesbian and gay people to live in. LGBT+ asylum seekers from other African countries who were stranded in Niger reported in 2022 that they were “living like prisoners” due to rampant discrimination and harassment.