“The National Assembly unanimously approved the law to abolish the death penalty in the Central African Republic,” said Semple Mathieu Sarangi, President of the National Assembly of the Central African Republic. The President of the Republic, Faustin Arcang Touadira, must sign the law for it to take effect.

For his part, General Secretary of the National Assembly Ghislain Junior Morjim said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that “the last execution in the Republic dates back to 1981”.

Thus, 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.

Notably, Central Africa, the second poorest country in the world according to the UN, has been witnessing a devastating civil war since 2013, although its intensity has decreased significantly since 2018. However, in a country with a population of 5.5 million people.