On 31 October 2018, Paul Makonda, Governor of the Province of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, announced that he was going to set up surveillance teams to identify gay men, also in the light of social media publications. In addition, on 2 November, the Minister for Tourism, Hamisi Kigwangalla, declared that homosexuals wishing to enter Tanzania would be rejected in their country of origin.

Even though the government has declared that Mr Makonda’s position is not official, but is only an expression of his ‘personal opinions’, Tanzania remains a country in which homosexuality is illegal. Anti-LGBTI rhetoric, bolstered by the political class and the Evangelical Church, has even led to the closure of private clinics providing medical treatment to HIV-positive people.

The news that the EU Ambassador to Tanzania has been recalled to Brussels to report on the rule of law and respect for human rights is positive.