Gambian president Yahya Jammeh has once again spoken out against gay people.

In a speech on Saturday he said: “Let me make it very clear that if they think that they can be homosexuals and want to impose homosexuality on the globe, they are doomed.

“All empires before collapsed not at the time they were weakest, but at the peak of their might and when they equated themselves with the Almighty Allah. So this evil empire of homosexuals will also go down the dirty drain and garbage of hell.

“They say I am intolerant, and that homosexuals are a minority that is being oppressed in this country.

Let me warn those countries that think they are powers. They may be evil powers, but the Gambia is a righteous power protected by God. We will prevail by the grace of the Almighty Allah.

All forces of evil that have bad intention towards the Gambia will perish. We will not change our way of life.”

Being gay is punishable with imprisonment in Gambia and gay people are frequently arrested.

Mr Jammeh has previously said that gay people are “vermin” and that homosexuality is one of the greatest threats facing humanity.

An attempted coup against Mr Jammeh’s government failed at the end of December.