Burkina Faso’s military-led government has taken a step toward reinstating the death penalty, adopting a new penal code that once again allows capital punishment for crimes including treason, terrorism and espionage.
The reform, approved at a Council of Ministers meeting on Thursday, reverses the country’s 2018 abolition of the death penalty and forms part of a wider legal overhaul undertaken by the junta, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
The bill must still pass parliament before entering into force.
Burkina Faso's Justice Minister, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, said the revisions were designed to create a justice system that responded to “the deep aspirations of our people”.
He also argued that the absence of capital punishment had created fertile ground for insecurity, claiming that armed groups used the abolition to reassure young recruits and invoked international conventions to shield themselves in the event of arrest.
Without tougher penalties, he said, “there are no sanctions”.
Burkina Faso aims to reinstate death penalty, government source says
Tougher penalties
Burkina Faso remains at the epicentre of jihadist violence in the Sahel, where armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have carried out attacks for more than a decade, and the junta has framed political and social restrictions as necessary tools in the fight against extremism.
Since seizing power in 2022, the military authorities have postponed elections, dissolved the independent electoral commission and pushed through a raft of institutional changes they say are necessary to restore security.
The revised penal code toughens penalties for several offences, increasing fines and making economic crimes such as embezzlement or corruption involving sums of over 5 billion CFA francs – around €7.6 million – punishable by life imprisonment.
It also criminalises the “promotion of homosexual practices and similar acts”. The junta passed another reform in September making homosexuality illegal, the first time it has been outlawed in Burkina Faso.
Traoré has pursued a fiercely sovereigntist line, rejecting what he calls “Western values”.
Military regimes have turned the Sahel into a 'black hole' of information
Shrinking civil space
Rights watchdogs say the government is shrinking the space for public scrutiny even as it tightens control over political life.
A Netherlands-based NGO confirmed on Friday that eight staff members detained on spying accusations had been released at the end of October. The International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO), which provides security analysis for humanitarian groups, rejected the allegations.
Burkinabé authorities had claimed INSO had collected and passed on sensitive security information about the country to foreign powers, and that its members continued to work covertly despite being banned.
The eight members included a Frenchman, a French-Senegalese woman, a Czech man, a Malian and four Burkinabé nationals.
Meanwhile, media outlets and civil society groups have also come under mounting pressure. The junta has suspended the BBC and Voice of America over their reporting on a mass killing last year attributed to the armed forces, and several journalists have been arrested.
In December 2022, Burkina Faso’s authorities ordered the “immediate suspension until further notice” of RFI broadcasts across the national territory.
(with newswires)
