Mapping Capital Punishment In Africa [Infographics]

This week, Sierra Leone made history as the 23rd African country to abolish the punishment of death otherwise known as capital punishment in the country. The parliament’s votes in Sierra Leone comes against the backdrop of a steady march in Africa to discard the outdated laws imposed by past colonial masters. In April, Malawi ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. In May of 2020, Chad did the same.

While countries like Sierra Leone and South Africa have joined the train of change, countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Libya and 28 others have retained the law despite being abolitionists in practice.

Abolitionists And Retentionist Countries In Africa

Death sentences and executions have declined globally in the last decade, although, they do not reflect the growing number of countries that have banned capital punishment. Some of the declines from 2020 have been attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, which slowed or delayed judicial proceedings in many countries.

Asides from Covid-19 delayed prosecution, countries like Ghana are grouped as abolitionists because they currently do not practise the death penalty even though the punishment is a tenant of its laws.

Countries like Nigeria are neither here nor there. Some of Nigeria’s states are de facto abolitionists and some states are retentionists. Northern states that still practise Sharia laws are firmly retenionists. Nigeria is also one of ten countries in Africa to carry out executions in the last ten years, leading to its classification by the UN as a retentionist death penalty country. Some states in Nigeria that are firmly retenionist include; Zamfara State, Kano State, Sokoto State, Katsina State, Bauchi State, Borno State, Jigawa State, Kebbi State, Yobe State, Kaduna State, Niger State, Gombe State, Imo State, Lagos State.

Mapping Capital Punishment in Africa

While discussing capital punishment in Africa, countries are categorized under two major groups; the Retentionist and Abolitionist states. Retentionists are countries that still retain capital punishment both by laws and in practice, while the latter refers to countries that have abolished capital punishment totally.

However, countries like Nigeria may not have abolished the laws but have not carried out sentences in some time. Countries that have announced a moratorium on capital punishment include; Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali.

Find an interactive map here

Countries That Have Carried Out Capital Punishment Within The Last 10 Years

While most retentionist countries in Africa are categorized as de facto abolitionists, a good per cent of these retenionist states still hand out death sentences in recent times.

For instance, South Sudan has not just handed out death sentences, it has gone ahead to carry out at least 43 executions within the last 10 years. In 2019. 11 people were executed, one of whom was aged 17 at the time of execution.

On the other hand, Egypt has carried out at least 354 executions since the beginning of 2015 till date. However, due to the government’s secrecy surrounding executions, it is believed the figure could be higher. Here are countries that have carried out death sentences within the last 10 years; Egypt, Libya, South Sudan, Botswana, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Nigeria.

Patsy Nwogu

Reporting on data-driven featured stories and investigations.

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