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WB, donors cut aid to Uganda over anti-gay law

353248_Uganda President

The World Bank and major Western donors have decided to cut financial aid to Uganda over a new anti-gay law that criminalizes same-sex relationships in the Eastern African state, Press TV reports.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni’s signing of the anti-homosexuality bill into law last month sent the World Bank and other donors into a tailspin as they suspended loan packages to the country in the past week alone, Press TV correspondent Daniel Arapmoi reported Tuesday.

The World Bank has so far suspended a 90-million-dollar loan package aimed at strengthening the country’s health care system.

The Netherlands has frozen a 9.6-million-dollar subsidy to Uganda’s legal system.

Denmark and Norway have announced that they are reconsidering financial aid for Uganda’s private sector, aid agencies, and rights organizations.

Ugandan Prime Minister Patrick Amama Mbabazi criticized the move, saying the United States and other donor partners cannot intimidate the East African country over its new anti-gay law.

“You know, they’re the ones who preach democracy to us. Even if we are the authors of democracy, they come here and preach to us democracy, those friends of ours. So what is democratic about this? The bill was taken to parliament. It was debated and passed, democratically,” Mbabazi explained.

On February 24, the Ugandan president signed the Anti-Homosexual Act.

The law stipulates that individuals involved in acts of “aggravated homosexuality” face life imprisonment. It also criminalizes “promotion” of homosexuality.

The Ugandan government has stressed that the West is trying to impose its own values on the country. Kampala argues that the anti-gay law is a domestic matter.

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