Burkina Faso’s military government has reinstated the death penalty, the justice ministry announced on Tuesday, following a unanimous vote by the West African country’s unelected legislature. The new penal code reintroduces capital punishment, which had been abolished in 2018, and the ministry said it “aims to strengthen public order, consolidate the nation’s fundamental values and guarantee security for people and property.”
The move was expected. Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who has ruled Burkina Faso since a 2022 coup, had announced plans last year to bring back the death penalty. State news agency AIB reported that crimes punishable by death will include acts of terrorism, espionage, treason, patricide and importing expired or banned products causing death. The new code also toughens penalties for embezzlement and homosexual practices.
Burkina Faso’s legislature has not been elected since the military seized power. The vote on Tuesday was unanimous, with no opposition to the reinstatement of capital punishment. The last recorded execution in Burkina Faso was in 1988, according to Amnesty International, which had urged the country not to bring back the death penalty.
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The decision comes as Burkina Faso battles a jihadist insurgency that has killed thousands and displaced millions since 2015. Traoré has framed his rule as a break from the past, expelling French forces, turning to Russia for security support and pursuing policies aimed at increasing state control over natural resources. But the reinstatement of the death penalty places Burkina Faso alongside a small group of African countries that still carry out capital punishment, and it signals a further hardening of the military government’s approach to governance.
Amnesty International has condemned the move, and human rights groups have warned that the death penalty is often used against political opponents and marginalised groups in countries where the judiciary is not independent. In Burkina Faso, the courts operate under a military government that has dissolved civil society organisations, suspended foreign media and cracked down on dissent.
The new penal code also extends the death penalty to economic crimes, including the importation of expired or banned products that cause death. That provision could be applied broadly, giving the military authorities another tool to prosecute perceived enemies. The government says the law is about security. But for a military regime that has already shown little tolerance for opposition, the return of the death penalty is another sign that Burkina Faso is moving further away from the democratic transition it once promised.
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