By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Two women in Comoros have been arrested and detained for allegedly engaging in same-sex sexual activity, after they approached an Islamic preacher to join them, a public prosecutor said on Saturday.
Heritage Times HT reports that same-sex marriage is illegal in Comoros, a Muslim-majority archipelago nation in the Indian ocean with a population of 870,000.
Public prosecutor Ali Mohamed Djounaid said the women were being held in pre-trial detention at a prison in the capital, Moroni.
This came after a court appearance in which they were charged with having “unnatural sex”.
“They are accused of acts that are contrary to good morals and against nature,” Djounaid said.
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If convicted, the two women aged 22 and 25 could be jailed for up to two years, he added.
There has been a growing crackdown on same-sex relations in some African countries in recent years.
Tough anti-LGBTQ+ laws have been passed in Uganda and Ghana drawing strong condemnation from Western countries and rights campaigners.
The Ugandan law enacted last year includes life imprisonment for gay sex and the death penalty for certain same-sex acts.
A report by the UK-based Human Dignity Trust, a rights group, said there were few known examples of anti-LGBTQ+ laws being enforced in the Comoros in recent years.
