Piece by: BBC

01 June 2023

• This comes amid criticism from Western nations and human rights groups.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has floated the international community's opposition to the anti-gay law he signed this week.

Mr Museveni insisted that the signing of the law was a done deal, defying calls for its repeal. "The signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill has been completed, no one will change our action.

We should be ready for war," he said in a statement after a meeting with members of his National Resistance Movement (NRM). "

NRM has never been bilingual, what we tell you during the day is what we will tell you at night," he added.

This comes amid criticism from Western nations and human rights groups. US President Joe Biden criticized the law as "an appalling violation of human rights for all" and called for it to be repealed, adding that the US was considering sanctions.

The European Union and the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, have also condemned the law.

The law was signed into law after Congress overrode it — but it's still among the toughest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world.

Anyone found guilty of same-sex sexual activity faces life imprisonment. The law also provides for the death penalty in "extreme cases", which include rape of a person under the age of 18, or where a person is infected with a life-threatening disease including HIV-AIDS.