The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has called David Cameron “satanic” for his support of gay rights.
Mugabe reportedly addressed media on Thursday, rallying against Western influence in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s state-run daily newspaper the Herald reported Mugabe to have said “It becomes worse and satanic when you get a prime minister like Cameron saying countries that want British aid should accept homosexuality, to come with that diabolic suggestion to our people is a stupid offer.’
A spokeswoman from Cameron’s Downing Street office told Canadian newspaper the Ottawa Citizen that they would not comment directly on Mugabe’s remarks but said Britain “is at the forefront of work to promote human rights around the world, and regularly criticises governments which violate those rights.
“This includes working to end religious intolerance, and persecution and discrimination against individuals on the basis of their sexuality.”
“Do not get tempted into that (homosexuality). You are young people. If you go that direction, we will punish you severely,” Mugabe said in Shurugwi.
“It is condemned by nature. It is condemned by insects and that is why I have said they are worse than pigs and dogs,” he said, according to The Herald.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-T, who shares power in government with Mugabe since winning elections in 2009, has said that he supports gay rights but that gays should “do their things in private”.
Homosexuality is illegal in the southern African country.
