Death Penalty

 

     Africa is ahead of many parts of the world, including the United States, in terms of its attitude toward the death penalty. 44 nations have either abolished the death penalty or not used it in decades. Burkina Faso abolished the death penalty for all civilian crimes in 2018, Chad ended it in 2020, and The Gambia, a nation that regularly conducted executions, implemented a moratorium in 2018 with eventual plans for abolition.

     Only nine nations conduct executions: Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Botswana, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and Somaliland. However, Nigeria and Somalia retain the death penalty for "crimes" like adultery, blasphemy, apostasy, and sodomy, and Somalia is the only nation in Africa to conduct public executions and the only nation in the world to use stoning. Therefore, Africa and the MENA region must remain a priority.