Burkina Faso Restores the Death Penalty After a Unanimous Vote

Burkina Faso has brought back the death penalty. The country's 71-member assembly voted unanimously on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 to adopt a revised penal code that restores capital punishment, the Justice Ministry said in a statement. The vote reverses the abolition of the death penalty in 2018, nearly a decade ago.

Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala presented the bill on behalf of the government. All 71 members of the assembly backed it, according to the ministry.

What the new code covers

The revised code makes the death penalty available again for crimes that include terrorism, espionage and treason. State media reported that it also covers importing expired or banned products that result in death. Reporting by AFP, citing the state news agency AIB, listed patricide, the killing of a parent, among the offences covered as well.

The Justice Ministry said the legislation aims to strengthen public order, consolidate the nation's fundamental values and guarantee security for people and property.

Why the government pushed the change

Burkina Faso has struggled for years to contain an Islamist insurgency linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State. The fighting has killed thousands of people and displaced millions, according to Reuters. The government has presented the return of the death penalty as part of its response to that insurgency.

Bayala said the relative lenience of the previous penal code helped armed groups recruit members. The country has been ruled by a military government since a coup in 2022, led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, who had announced plans last year to reinstate the death penalty.

Rights groups warn of repression

Rights groups reacted with alarm while the bill was still moving through the government. Human Rights Watch said, when the Council of Ministers first approved the bill last year, that reinstating the death penalty could deepen repression, entrench a climate of fear and send a chilling message to critics of the military government.

Amnesty International had urged the country not to bring back capital punishment and warned that it could be used to punish dissent. According to Amnesty, Burkina Faso's last known judicial execution was in 1988. The country carried out no executions in the decades before abolition, and the punishment had been removed from the penal code for ordinary crimes in 2018.

The assembly that passed the code is unelected, and the government now has to put the new provisions into practice. No execution date or new death sentence was announced with the vote.