The World Bank has postponed a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda over its tough new anti-gay law that has drawn criticism from around the world.
World Bank officials said they wanted to guarantee the projects the loan was destined to support were not going to be adversely affected by the new law.
The loan was intended to boost Uganda’s health services.
The new law, enacted on Monday, strengthens already strict legislation relating to homosexuals in the country.
It allows life imprisonment as the penalty for acts of “aggravated homosexuality” and also criminalises the “promotion of homosexuality”.
The law has been sharply criticised by the West, with donors such as Denmark and Norway saying they would redirect aid away from the government to aid agencies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called the law “atrocious”. Both he and South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu compared it to anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa.
NMG
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