ICC TO PROBE NIGERIA SECURITY AGENCIES OVER CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND WAR CRIMES
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a preliminary dedication to investigate Nigerian security agencies over allegations of “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes”.
This is coming on the heels of allegations of human right abuses against the country’s security forces in the north-east and other parts of Nigeria.
Recall that in a report titled “My heart is in pain” released on Tuesday, December 10, 2020, a humanitarian agency, Amnesty International had accused the Nigerian military of killing innocent and elderly people in Boko Haram fights in northeastern Nigeria.
Read Also: NIGERIAN MILITARY ACCUSES AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF BLACKMAIL
The report came over a week after the massacre of about 43 farmers in Borno state, which set a new standard of brutality in Boko Haram’s 11-year-old jihadist insurgency.
However, the Defence Headquarters accused Amnesty International (AI) of blackmailing the Nigerian military in the report.
Fatou Bensouda, outgoing prosecutor of the ICC, in a statement on Friday said that her office had completed a preliminary examination and found a “reasonable basis to believe” that Boko Haram and its splinter groups had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Nigeria, through murder, rape, sexual slavery and torture. Judges must approve the request.
Read Also: GROUP WARNS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL TO LEAVE NIGERIA, THREATENS TO KILL ITS WORKERS AND BURN OFFICES
Bensouda’s office has been reviewing the conflict between government forces and Boko Haram and its various splinter groups in western and northern Nigeria since 2010.
She said the office recognised that the vast majority of the crimes were attributable to non-state actors, but that it had also found a “reasonable basis” to believe that members of the Nigerian security forces had also committed crimes.
These included murder, rape, torture and cruel treatment, as well as enforced disappearance and forcible transfer of the population and attacks directed at civilians.
Read Also: SHEKAU-LED FACTION OF BOKO HARAM CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR ZABARMARI MASSACRE
Reacting to this, Amnesty International welcomed the announcement as an “important milestone” and urged the ICC, which was set up in 2002 to try the world’s worst crimes, to swiftly begin an “effective and well-resourced investigation”.
“ICC Prosecutor must now follow with immediate action to open a full investigation,” Netsanet Belay, the group’s director of research and advocacy, wrote on Twitter.
Comments