Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed a law abolishing the death penalty with immediate effect.

The abolition takes immediate effect, making Zimbabwe the latest African country to eliminate capital punishment.

Rights group Amnesty International praised the decision as a “beacon of hope” for abolitionist movements across the region. However, the organisation expressed concern over a clause that allows the death penalty to be reinstated during a state of emergency.

The move follows a parliamentary vote earlier in December to scrap the death penalty. While Zimbabwe last executed a prisoner in 2005, courts continued to impose death sentences for severe crimes such as murder.

Approximately 60 inmates are on death row at the end of 2023, according to Amnesty. These individuals will now be re-sentenced, with judges instructed to consider factors such as the nature of their crimes, the time they spent on death row, and their personal circumstances, reported the state-owned Herald newspaper.

Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi described the abolition as “more than a legal reform,” calling it a “statement of our commitment to justice and humanity.”

The death penalty was introduced during British colonial rule and has long been a contentious issue in Zimbabwe.

President Mnangagwa, a vocal critic of capital punishment, has often cited his own experience: he was sentenced to death in the 1960s for his role in the guerrilla war for independence, but his sentence was later commuted to 10 years in prison.

The Death Penalty Abolition Act, officially published in the government gazette on Tuesday, represents a culmination of Mnangagwa’s long-standing opposition to the practice.

The Zimbabwean government has approved the slaughter of 200 elephants to feed hungry citizens.

A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority, Tinashe Farawo, confirmed the development to CNN on Monday.

“We are targeting to cull 200 elephants,” Farawo said, lamenting rising cases of elephant-human conflict amid lingering food insecurity caused by severe drought in the East African country.

He added: “The animals are causing a lot of havoc in communities, killing people. Last week, we lost a woman in the northern part of the country who was killed by an elephant. The previous week, the same thing happened. So it (the culling) is also a way of controlling.”

According to local media, this year, over 30 persons have been killed in different wildlife-human conflicts in Zimbabwe.

Reuters quoted Farawo to have said the culling is also part of the country’s efforts to decongest its parks, which can only sustain 55,000 elephants. Zimbabwe is home to over 84,000 elephants.

“It’s an effort to decongest the parks in the face of drought. The numbers are just a drop in the ocean because we are talking of 200 (elephants) and we are sitting on plus 84,000, which is big,” he said.

The United Nations estimated over seven million to be at risk of acute hunger in Zimbabwe, declaring the East African country “as one of the hunger hotspots.”

In a statement in early August, UN said: “A new report from the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) reveals that food insecurity levels in Zimbabwe are rapidly deteriorating after it was hit with historic droughts due to the El Niño weather pattern,”

Zimbabwe’s planned culling of elephants comes weeks after the Namibian government adopted the same measure to tackle potential food insecurity and potential wildlife-human conflict as drought bites harder.