World Bank Runs: Prohibition of Loans Uganda due to anti-LGBTI Act suspended

From now on the World Bank will again allow it to issue loans to the East African country Uganda, after the international bank stopped almost two years ago because of the controversial anti-LGBTI law that the Ugandan parliament had adopted. The World Bank has announced this to international media, including the BBC and Reuters news agency.

In 2023, the so-called ‘anti-homosexuality law’ was introduced in Uganda, making ‘complicity’ to ‘LGBTI practices’ punishable. Since then, LGBTI persons can be locked up for twenty years or get the death penalty. Due to the far -reaching repression, the law immediately led to much criticism of human rights organizations and various government leaders.

The United States and the World Bank quickly imposed sanctions on Uganda, but that was to no avail. Since the introduction of the law, hundreds of LGBTI people have been put out of the house, fallen victim to violence or arrested for their sexuality, the BBC writes.

Important financier

Nevertheless, the World Bank now sees sufficient reason to make it possible to give loans. In a statement to the Reuters news agency, the bank states that the « mitigating measures » has agreed with the Ugandan authorities, so that money for development projects would have no negative consequences for LGBTI people. What these measures are exactly remains unclear.

A spokesperson told AFP news agency: « The World Bank cannot live up to her mission to end poverty (…) unless all people can participate in the projects we finance. »

The World Bank is one of the most important financiers for the Uganda, among other things, for poverty Infrastructure projects. Due to the sanctions because of the anti-LGBTI law, the country would 470 million to 1.7 billion Dollars have missed out.

Ghana abandoned similar law

Although the law was not withdrawn, the pressure of the World Bank and other states seemed to have an effect, albeit outside Uganda itself. In Ghana a similar law was not introduced for the time being after the Minister of Finance warned that the country could miss out on billions in financing the World Bank.

According to the Ugandan government, the law reflects the conservative values ​​that live among the population, but according to critics, the government mainly tries to divert attention from other problems, such as the high unemployment and the repression of political opposition in the country.

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