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Africa: Global Executions On the Rise As African States Rethink Capital Punishment
RFI, 9 April 2025
While much of the world has left capital punishment behind, the most recent report by Amnesty International shows executions last year reached their highest level globally in… Read more »
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Africa: Global / Executions Highest On Record Since 2015 - New Death Penalty Report
AI London, 8 April 2025
In 2024, global executions surged to 1,518, the highest since 2015 Read more »
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Africa: UN Rights Chief Decries Substantial Rise in Death Penalty Executions
UN News, 25 February 2025
International efforts to eradicate the death penalty came into sharp focus at the Human Rights Council on Tuesday, where UN human rights chief Volker Türk decried a… Read more »
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Nigeria: Death Penalty for Drug Dealers
Leadership, 13 February 2025
The year 2024 was quite hectic for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigeria's public agency, saddled with the task of administering rules against drug trafficking,… Read more »
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Kenya: ICJ Kenya Welcomes Parliamentary Review of Death Penalty As Crucial
Capital FM, 13 February 2025
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) Kenya has praised the formation of a Parliamentary Task Force to review the country's death penalty laws, calling it a crucial step in… Read more »
New Rise In Executions - Is Africa Rethinking Capital Punishment?
Global campaigners have expressed concern over a new Amnesty International report which shows that in 2024, executions around the world reached their highest level in almost a decade.This comes as several African nations, including DR Congo and Nigeria, consider reintroducing the death penalty.
Rights advocates fear this could reverse the years of progress.
Amnesty has also warned that some countries are "weaponising" capital punishment in order to stifle dissent, as they "target minorities or enforce political control". This trend, analysts fear, could be replicated if these African states move forward with their plans.
The report, however, acknowledged that across Africa, a slow but steady trend towards abolition is under way. Chad abolished the death penalty for all crimes in 2020, while Sierra Leone and Malawi following suit in 2021.
InFocus
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Zimbabwe abolished its death penalty almost 20 years after the country's last execution. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who faced the death penalty himself dur Read more »
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Burkina Faso is reportedly considering reinstating the death penalty which was outlawed in 2018. Justice Minister Rodrigue Bayala said that the issue of the death penalty is Read more »
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In recognition of World Day Against the Death Penalty, Amnesty International has called upon three sub-Saharan African countries on the verge of abolition to strike the death Read more »
