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{{The usually diplomatic Sierra Leone President has lashed out at the Western world for “imposing” gay rights on Africa.}}

Ernest Bai Koroma said laws on homosexuality and similar issues should be the decision of individual countries and urged patience among Western governments and donor agencies so that Africans engage in a proper “consensus” on the issue.

The Sierra Leone President’s remarks come after the World Bank suspended a planned funding to Uganda over its recently introduced anti-gay law.

Other Western countries, notably Denmark and Norway, are redirecting aid from the Ugandan government to aid agencies.

“It is not right for issues to be imposed lock, stock and barrel from the international world…we have to take into consideration our culture, traditions, religious beliefs and all that,” President Koroma said in Abuja where he was a guest at Nigeria’s centenary celebrations.

On Friday, the screening of a Ugandan film on gay-rights activism, as part of an ongoing human rights film festival, rekindled debate over the subject of homosexuality in Sierra Leone.

Panellists, following the screening, highlighted similarities between Uganda and Sierra Leone, which painted a bleak future for the gay communities in the two countries.

{{Hostile public}}

Although no one has as yet been prosecuted for a homosexual act, a colonial-era law in Sierra Leone remains a deterrent for LGBTI people who live strictly “in the closet”.

Because of fear of possible police harassment, many LGBTI people refrain from reporting incidences of violence by an increasingly hostile public.

A leading gay rights activist, George Reginald Freeman, was forced to flee the country to Spain with two of his colleagues last year after coming under attack by unknown assailants.

“All we want is for recognition of two consenting adults to exercise their rights based on their sexual orientation,” Hudson Tucker, the coordinator of Dignity Association, the only visible remaining gay rights advocacy group in the country, said at Friday’s panel discussion.

In Abuja, President Koroma said western countries and donor agencies should engage with African governments to find a balance to their “differences” and allow the African governments to consult and sensitise their people on the subject.

But such engagements, he insisted, must respect the “consensus” of the African people.

“I believe with engagement with our communities, sensitisation and other public awareness programmes, we will get at a consensus.

“When a country arrives at a consensus, I think the country should be led by what it believes is right for the country and not what is necessarily right for the international community,” Koroma said.

{{A senior official in Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) admitted yesterday that his country’s ties with Saudi Arabia are strained in the wake of Riyadh’s decision to bar its banks from dealing with its Sudanese counterparts.}}

The NCP head of the external relations al-Dirdeeri Mohamed Ahmed who was asked on the Saudi move on Wednesday said that while tensions exist in their ties, efforts are underway to reverse this trend.

“There is so much that is being done now, both public and non-public to bring things back to their original state,” the NCP official was quoted as saying by al-Taghyeer online news portal.

Ahmed rejected using the term blockade to describe Saudi Arabia’s decision stating that the Arab Gulf nation “does not embargo Sudan”.

Over the few years there have been mounting signs of deteriorating relations between Khartoum and Riyadh.

Last August, Saudi Arabia closed its airspace to the plane carrying Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir on his way to Iran where he was scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony of president-elect Hassan Rouhani thus forcing him and his delegation to return home.

Observers speculated that Sudan’s growing ties with Iran could have irked the Saudis prompting them to block Bashir’s flight.

Sudan has allowed Iranian warships to dock in Port Sudan three times over the last year and a half, drawing concern by the United States and its allies in the Gulf.

The mostly Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf states are wary of Iranian influence in the Middle East, fearing the Shiite-led country is seeking regional dominance that will stir sectarian tensions.

The Syrian conflict has also increased the divide between the two sides, with Arab monarchies supporting the rebels and Iran backing the Al-Assad regime.

Bashir, who performed the Muslim Hajj (pilgrimage) last year, did not meet with King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz during the visit, despite the Saudi monarch holding separate talks with the Turkish and Pakistani presidents who also performed Hajj this year.

On Saturday, the Sudanese finance minister, Badr al-Deen Mahmoud attributed a decision made by several foreign banks to stop dealings with their Sudanese counterparts to pressures exercised on them by the United States.

Saudi Arabia and some European banks have reportedly suspended their dealings with Sudan as of the February 28th. Sudanese officials initially refused to comment on the move which was widely circulated within the business community in Khartoum.

There was no comment from Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) and it is not clear if the latter issued the directive or if it was decision by individual banks.

Mahmoud said that two Saudi banks have suspended their financial transactions with Sudan, describing banking interactions particularly with the Arab countries as crucial because it links Khartoum to the international banking system.

He pointed to pressures exerted by the US on some banks dealing with Sudan and said those pressures have existed since 1997, disclosing ongoing arrangements to overcome negative effects of the decision.

US sanctions dating back to the Clinton administration in 1997 bars any financial dealings with Sudan or institutions owned by Khartoum which complicates Sudan’s access to international financial markets and US dollars.

But the minister’s comment contradicted a statement issued by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS) on Thursday in which it attributed the move to what it termed routine banking procedures by the financial institutions.

According to the CBoS, the decision is related to internal procedures within the framework of institutional control at those banks.

“This is normal in the field of banking that experiences continuous changes”, it added.

{sudantribune}