Dakar - Senegalese police has arrested five women accused of violating the country's anti-gay law, highlighting increased pressure on suspected lesbians in the deeply conservative West African nation.

The five women were arrested during a birthday party at a restaurant in Dakar's Yoff district that has been described as a meeting point for gay men and lesbians around the area.

Ceoafrica gathered that the oldest of the suspects, 31-year-old Sene Dieng, is an assistant director at Women's Smile, the only group in Senegal to advocate for lesbians' rights.

Senegal's penal code calls for prison sentences of up to five years and fines of up to $3 000 for committing "an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex." Since 2008, the Muslim-majority country has been gripped by what Human Rights Watch describes as an anti-gay "moral panic," with arrests and mob justice on the rise.

As in other sub-Saharan African countries that enforce laws criminalising homosexual acts, Senegalese police have primarily targeted gay men for arrest and extortion, and raids against suspected lesbians are fairly rare.

The issue of gay rights in Senegal took centre stage during a visit from United States President Barack Obama in June. At a joint press conference in Dakar, Senegalese President Macky Sall openly clashed with Obama on the issue of whether homosexual acts should be decriminalised, saying Senegal was "not ready" to take such a step.

Sall insisted that gays in Senegal were only prosecuted if caught violating the law.