This president wants to kill gay people by public stoning

The leader of the East African nation of Burundi described marriage equality as an “abominable practice” and said gay people in his country should be gathered and executed as a group by stoning.

“If you want to attract a curse to the country, accept homosexuality,” Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye said at a press conference on Friday as reported by Reuters.

Ndayishimiye, 55, is reportedly a conservative Catholic and an ardent opponent of marriage equality and LGBTQ+ rights.

“For me, I think that if we find these people in Burundi they should be taken to stadiums and be stoned, and doing so would not be a crime,” Ndayishimiye told the media, according to the BBC.

He further advised Burundians who had opted to “choose Satan” by embracing their LGBTQ+ identity while living abroad should not return home.

“If you want to choose Satan now go and live in those [tolerant Western] countries and I think those who strive to go there want to acquire those habits, they should remain there and never bring them to us," Ndayishimiye said according to the BBC.

All same-sex sexual relations are banned in Burundi and punishable by up to two years imprisonment according to Equaldex. Marriage equality is not recognized and there are minimal protections for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Last February, 24 people were arrested in what authorities described as a security crackdown on “homosexual practices” according to the AFP. Members of the HIV support group MUCCO Burundi were arrested as they met in Gitega.

“They are accused of homosexual practices and of inciting homosexual practices among adolescent boys and girls to whom they give money,” one activist who remained anonymous for fear of reprisal told the AFP.

Police reportedly found condoms as well as materials advocating LGBTQ+ rights which the cited as evidence in the case.