The Central African National Assembly voted Friday by acclamation the abolition of the death penalty, announced the president of the Assembly, in a country in civil war where the last capital execution dates back to 1981.
“The National Assembly has adopted by acclamation the law abolishing the death penalty in the Central African Republic”, affirmed before the deputies Simplice Mathieu Sarandji, to applause. The law has yet to be promulgated by the President of the Republic, Faustin Archange Touadéra.
The Central African Republic, the second poorest country in the world according to the UN, has been ravaged since 2013 by a civil war which has nevertheless considerably decreased in intensity since 2018. “The last capital execution in the Central African Republic dates from 1981”, declared Ghislain Junior Mordjim, Secretary General of the National Assembly.
Amnesty International welcomes
The Central African Republic joins the list of African countries that have abolished the death penalty in recent years on the continent, after Chad in 2020, and Sierra Leone in 2021.
“Good news, the National Assembly of the Central African Republic has just voted to abolish the death penalty,” reacted in a tweet the NGO Amnesty International, which campaigns for the ban on capital punishment. “We invite the President (…) to promulgate this law”.
“We are very satisfied, but aware that we will have to raise public awareness,” said lawyer Bruno Gbiegba, advocacy coordinator for the abolition of the death penalty in the Central African Republic. The Central African Republic, a country of around 5.5 million inhabitants with a quasi-failed rule of law, is bloodied by decades of civil wars, the last of which began 9 years ago.
“Serious violations of human rights”
At the end of 2020, the most powerful of the many armed groups which then shared two-thirds of the territory had launched an offensive on Bangui shortly before the elections and Touadéra had called on Moscow to the rescue of its impoverished army.
Since the beginning of 2021, the Central African forces and their Russian allies have pushed the rebels back from a large part of the territories and towns they controlled, without however being able to reinstall everywhere and permanently the presence and authority of the State.
On March 30, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, denounced “serious human rights violations” in the Central African Republic, including “murders and sexual violence” against civilians. , committed by rebel groups but also the armed forces of the regime and their Russian allies.