Amnesty International on Friday urged Burkina Faso’s military junta to scrap its plan to reinstate the death penalty seven years after its abolition.

The junta’s council of ministers adopted a draft law on Thursday aimed at reinstating the punishment for crimes including high treason, terrorism and espionage.

Amnesty’s regional director Marceau Sivieude said the military must “immediately halt” its plans “regardless of the nature of the offences or crimes committed”.

“Countries that still retain the death penalty are an isolated minority as the world continues to move away from this cruel punishment,” he told AFP in a statement.

He added that the proposal if approved would “set Burkina Faso against the goal of abolition” enshrined in international law.

The last recorded execution was in 1988, according to Amnesty.

The draft penal code, which must be approved by the transitional legislature created by the ruling junta, also penalises “the promotion and practices of homosexuality and related acts”, according to the west African country’s government.

The new penal code “reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others,” stated the Burkinabe government’s information service.

The unrest-hit Sahel nation has been led by Captain Ibrahim Traore since a 2022 military coup.

Since taking power, Traore has pursued anti-Western policies and distanced the country from former colonial ruler France, while strengthening ties with Russia and Iran.

“The adoption of this draft law is part of the broader reforms in the sector aimed at delivering justice that meets the profound aspirations of the people,” said Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala in the government statement.

The west African nation also adopted a law in September targeting “perpetrators of homosexual practices” with sentences of up to five years in prison.

Burkina Faso has been plagued by jihadists who have pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group for more than a decade, with the junta struggling to keep a lid on the burgeoning unrest.

The junta has frequently moved to silence voices who criticise its rule, on its inability to restore order to the country.

Besides Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo reversed a more than two-decade-long moratorium on capital punishment in 2024, while Nigeria has moved to make drug-related crimes punishable by death.

According to Amnesty, 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa handed down death penalties in 2024.

However, Somalia was the only one of those nations to have carried out an execution, for the second year running, the rights watchdog said.