Burkina Faso’s Council of Ministers has adopted a bill to restore the death penalty, targeting offenses such as treason, terrorism, and espionage, authorities said. “The adoption of this bill is part of reforms. To have a justice that responds to the deep aspirations of our people,” Minister of Justice Edasso Rodrigue Bayala said in a Facebook post late Thursday. The death penalty was abolished in the country in 2018. The bill has to be adopted by parliament and reviewed by the courts before becoming law. Since taking power in a 2022 coup, the West African country’s military leaders have launched sweeping reforms, including postponing elections that were expected to restore civilian rule and dissolving the country’s independent electoral commission.
