The proposed measure follows the killing of a five-year-old boy whose burned body was discovered in Blida Province

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered amendments to the North African nation's penal code allowing the execution of people convicted of abducting or severely abusing children.

The proposed directive came during a Council of Ministers meeting on Sunday, amid public outrage over the killing of a five-year-old in Blida Province last month. The boy disappeared in August and his body was later found burned in a forest near Bouinan. The National Gendarmerie said four suspects, including a woman, have been arrested, while a fifth remains at large.

Meriem Cherfi, head of Algeria's National Body for the Protection and Promotion of Children, welcomed the measure, saying it would strengthen deterrence against crimes targeting minors.

Algeria ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 2003, both of which require states to protect minors from violence, exploitation and abduction. However, the country is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

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According to figures that the NADA Network for the Defense of Children's Rights cited in a 2026 academic study, 1,000 children fall prey to abductions and attempted abductions in Algeria every year. The country's 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey also found that 84.1% of children aged one to 14 had experienced psychological aggression or physical punishment by caregivers in the previous month.

Resuming executions would end a moratorium which has held in Algeria for more than three decades. The country retains capital punishment, and its courts continue to impose death sentences, but no execution has been carried out there since 1993.

The latest measure follows an earlier order seeking the death penalty for people convicted of deliberately starting or commissioning fires. Tebboune issued the arson measure after wildfires swept northern Algeria in late August, killing at least 12 people and causing widespread destruction.

Similar penalties exist elsewhere in Africa. Uganda permits death sentences for the aggravated sexual abuse of minors, including offenses against children under 14. Nigeria's Kaduna State introduced the death penalty and surgical castration for adults convicted of raping children under 14 in 2020.