00:00While the picture on capital punishment across Africa is mixed, significant strides have been
00:05made to abolish the death penalty. Zimbabwe became the latest African country to axe the
00:11practice in 2024, while Ghana passed a bill in 2023 to replace the death penalty with life
00:19imprisonment. A report published by Statista in January 2026 reveals that as of 2023-2024,
00:28at least 30 African countries still retain the death penalty in law. Some of these countries
00:35include Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria. But assessing
00:44how frequently capital punishment is used is not straightforward. Also, there's a difference
00:50between countries where the death penalty is legal and where it is regularly carried out.
00:55Amnesty International said executions had more than tripled from 11 in 2022 to 38 in 2023.
01:05But this was largely due to Somalia recording over 34 executions by shooting for charges related to
01:13terrorism and other crimes. For the field, the highest number of executions in 2024 were carried
01:20out by China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
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