Burkina Faso: Parliament votes to reinstate the death penalty

Burkina Faso’s parliament unanimously voted to reinstate the death penalty, the Justice Ministry announced on Tuesday. The new Penal Code makes terrorism, espionage, treason, parricide, and importing expired or banned products that cause death punishable by execution. The last recorded execution in the country was in 1988; Amnesty International had urged Burkina Faso not to restore capital punishment, which was abolished in 2018. The country has been ruled by a military junta since the 2022 coup and has endured more than a decade of violence by jihadist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.