The government of Burkina Faso will reinstate the death penalty in its penal code, which had been abolished in 2018, the Council of Ministers announced on Thursday, December 4.

The death penalty had not been applied since 1988, and it was abolished thirty years later under the presidency of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. On December 4, the Burkinabe Council of Ministers decided to reinstate it "for a number of offenses including high treason, acts of terrorism, and acts of espionage, among others," the Burkinabe government information service stated.

"The adoption of this bill (on the reform of the penal code) is part of the dynamic of global reforms of the sector for a justice that responds to the deep aspirations of the people," explained the Burkinabe Minister of Justice, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, quoted by the government information service.

The text, which must be ratified by the Transitional Legislative Assembly established by the military government, also "sanctions" "the promotion and practice of homosexuality and related acts." In September, for the first time, the country adopted a law providing for sentences of up to five years in prison for "perpetrators of homosexual acts." Burkina Faso then joined the list of more than half of the 54 African states that have adopted laws criminalizing homosexuality with sentences ranging from several years in prison to the death penalty.

These laws, criticized abroad, find some popular support in those countries where residents and politicians criticize homosexuality, arguing that it is a foreign behavior and not a sexual orientation. At the time, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala described homosexuality as "strange behavior."

According to Amnesty International, death sentences were handed down in 14 sub-Saharan African countries in 2024, representing a 10% decrease. The number of recorded executions in the region also fell by 11%, the NGO stated in its 2024 report, adding that Somalia was the only country in the region known to have carried out executions for the second consecutive year.

In addition to Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo has planned "to resume executions and reinstate the death penalty for common crimes, while Nigeria has taken steps to ensure that drug-related offenses are punishable by death," explains Amnesty.

Burkina Faso has been plagued across large swathes of its territory by attacks from jihadist armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State for the past decade. The military government regularly represses its critics, particularly regarding the deteriorating security situation since it came to power.

NGOs such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accuse the regime of using kidnapping as a means of suppressing critical voices.