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JOHANNESBURG - Most young Africans want the rights of women and refugees to be protected, but only one-third feel the same applies to LGBTQ+ people.

The Africa Youth Survey found the majority of interviewees from 10 out of the 16 countries surveyed LGBTQ+ rights should be protected. Researchers polled 5,604 Africans between the ages of 18 and 24 from 16 African countries.

Some countries held stronger views than others.

In Cameroon, for example, 80% of those surveyed strongly disagree with queer rights being protected.

In South Africa, the only African country where same-sex marriages are legal, 77% agree that LGBTQ+ rights should be protected.

Understanding why there is such a discrepancy across the continent is complex, but diversity researchers say these views are tied to regional politics and historical rights movements.

"Southern Africa stands out as a more progressive region," said Caio de Araujo, a research officer at The Other Foundation, an LGBTQ+ rights group.

This could be explained by the strong constitutional protections and policies towards LGBTQ+ people and other minorities in the region, said de Araujo. But these views “cannot be taken for granted because things shift quickly," de Araujo added from his office in Johannesburg.

There have been positive advances across the continent for LGBTQ+ rights. Seven African countries have decriminalised same-sex relations in the past decade.

But other countries have enforced discriminatory laws.

Some 30 African countries have laws that criminalise LGBTQ+ people in some way, either leftovers from the colonial era, or new laws that have helped sway voters, such as in Ghana.

On the world's youngest continent, with 70% of people in sub-Saharan Africa aged under 30, what young people think is key to driving policy and social change, rights researchers say.

"We really need more data that reflects experiences across the continent ... that can be really powerful to promote change in a more informed, evidence-based manner," said de Araujo.

This story is part of a series supported by Hivos's programme.

(Reporting by Kim Harrisberg; Editing by Ayla Jean Yackley.)