During the past 10 years, most Commonwealth African coun­tries have moved toward abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty and today almost half of these coun­tries have aban­doned the prac­tice accord­ing to Amnesty International. Government lead­ers from around the con­ti­nent recent­ly met in Entebbe, Uganda, for a two-day sum­mit to dis­cuss cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Five Southern African Development Countries have abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and the num­ber of coun­tries end­ing the death penal­ty in the Economic Community of West Aftican States region and Mauritania jumped from one to 10 in just one decade. In addi­tion, Presidents from sev­er­al nations, includ­ing Zambia, Nigeria, and Kenya, have tak­en sig­nif­i­cant steps toward com­mut­ing death sen­tences and work­ing toward abo­li­tion. ​“Only Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone have car­ried out exe­cu­tions in the last decade. Amnesty International wel­comes pos­i­tive action across Africa to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment,” not­ed Amnesty International in a state­ment. ​“Worldwide, an aver­age of three coun­tries a year abol­ish­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” (Mail & Guardian Online, May 11, 2004) See International Death Penalty.

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