Fri 08 October 2021:
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio signed a bill abolishing the death sentence on Friday, making his country the latest African country to do so.
The move comes after lawmakers in the West African country voted in July to abolish the death penalty, replacing it with life in prison or a minimum 30-year sentence.
“As a nation, we have today exorcised horrors of a cruel past,” Bio said in a statement, adding that capital punishment is “inhumane”.
“We today affirm our belief in the sanctity of life,” he added.
Sierra Leone, which is still rebuilding from decades of civil conflict, has been criticized by human rights groups for maintaining the death penalty.
Before Sierra Leone’s parliament approved an abolition measure in May, the government indicated that it will move to abolish the death sentence in order to protect human rights.
Sierra Leone’s last executions occurred in 1998, when 24 military personnel were put to death following a coup attempt the year before.
Death sentences have been frequently commuted since then.
The former British colony, which is rich in diamonds, is still one of the poorest countries on the planet, with a population of 7.5 million people.
Sierra Leone’s economy was devastated by a civil war that lost 120,000 people between 1991 and 2002, followed by an Ebola epidemic that lasted from 2014 to 2016.
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