Uganda joins the BRICS alliance led by Russia, and rejects US and EU
“The US and EU expect that all countries will comply with sanctions whenever they are imposed. If you do not comply, there will be penalties and further sanctions. They have started freezing assets in their territory without UN resolutions. This is a breach of international order. Uganda cannot merely observe these changes without becoming part of the evolving global landscape,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Henry Okello Oryem said in remarks to the Uganda Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday.
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Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed the measure into law in May 2023, inciting international condemnation and a raft of financial penalties from the West.
The World Bank halted loans to Uganda, President Joe Biden expelled the country from a U.S.-African trade pact, and protesters demanded the EU sanction Uganda over the “state-sponsored discrimination.” Pope Francis denounced the punitive measure as “unacceptable.”
Uganda’s Supreme Court upheld the law in 2024.
A report issued in October estimated Uganda’s economic loss due to the Anti-Homosexuality Act at up to $1.6 billion, or as much as 3.2% of the country’s GDP.
BRICS is an economic alliance including original members Russia, China, Brazil, and India. It is modeled on the G7 group of nations, and Uganda’s legislation aligns with founding member Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ crusade.
Russia has been implicated in promoting Kill the Gays legislation in Uganda and other culturally conservative countries across Africa through its association with Family Watch International, the Arizona-based group that helped craft Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, its overturned precursor, and similar legislation in Kenya, Ghana, Burundi and other African nations.
Anti-LGBTQ+ activists in those countries have parroted Russia’s claim that an “international LGBT movement” is an example of Western “degeneracy” aimed at undermining “pro-family” nations.
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