Ouagadougou: The government of Burkina Faso is taking decisive action to ensure that child rapists face the full extent of the law. The Burkinabe Minister of Justice, Camarade Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, has instructed all prosecutors and Attorneys General throughout the country to seek the maximum penalties available in cases involving the rape of minors. This directive was formalized in a circular signed on July 17, 2026.
According to Burkina Information Agency, the circular was sent to every Attorney General at a Court of Appeal and every prosecutor at a High Court (TGI) in the nation. It lays out four specific guidelines aimed at strengthening the judicial handling of such offenses. Key among these instructions is the requirement for magistrates to "request sentences commensurate with the seriousness of the facts," and to seek maximum sentences when justified by the circumstances of the case.
The directive from Minister Bayala is reinforced by three additional measures. First, it calls for the elimination of criminal mediation and criminal composition, which are procedures that previously allowed for the settlement of criminal cases without a trial under certain conditions. The minister also put an end to requisitions for community service sentences, which substitute prison terms with unpaid work for public benefit. Lastly, there is now a mandate to promptly appeal any sentences deemed excessively lenient, taking the matter to a higher court for review.
Minister Bayala's circular highlights a "worrying development in the offenses of rape committed on minors" and criticizes the "sentences of low severity" that have been issued in some cases, despite the grave nature of the crimes. This concern was brought into sharp focus by recent verdicts from the Tenkodogo High Court, where two defendants-a teacher and an imam-were sentenced to only 17 and 18 months imprisonment, respectively, for raping minor students aged 15 and 8, who were subsequently made pregnant.
These sentences were deemed insufficient, prompting the prosecutor of Faso to file an immediate appeal with the Court of Appeal of Fada N'Gourma. In contrast, other recent decisions by Burkinabe courts demonstrate the severity that the Minister aims to standardize. For instance, the Bobo-Dioulasso High Court sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for raping a 4-year-old girl, and the Dori High Court handed down a 15-year sentence, including 8 years of mandatory imprisonment, for the rape of an 8-year-old minor.
The TGI of Lo also sentenced a father of six to 11 years imprisonment, with 6 years mandatory, for attempted aggravated rape of a 14-year-old girl. The new penal doctrine seeks to address the disparity in sentencing across different jurisdictions and aims to harmonize the judicial response, thereby restoring public confidence in the judicial system.