Evariste Ndayishimiye, the president of Burundi, called for violence against gays during a Friday press conference, claiming that homosexuality bring “a curse” upon any nation that tolerates it.

“If you want to attract a curse to the country, accept homosexuality,” Ndayishimiye told reporters during a question and answer session, Reuters reported.

“I even think that these people, if we find them in Burundi, it is better to lead them to a stadium and stone them. And that cannot be a sin,” Ndayishimiye added, according to the outlet. Ndayishimiye has been president of Burundi since 2020 and has been described as a “devout Catholic.”

Burundi is a small landlocked country in east-central Africa that borders Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.