The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, has called for a formal inquiry to begin into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Nigeria. It follows a decade-long investigation into violence in the north-east involving Boko Haram militants.
Gambian-born Bensouda opened a preliminary investigation into the situation in Nigeria in 2010 but now wants permission from judges to proceed to a full-blown formal probe.
She found that murder, rape, torture, and enlisting children under the age of 15 into armed groups are among the long list of atrocities committed by Boko Haram.
She said her 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.
The Nigerian army has suffered numerous setbacks since the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009.
The group which is fighting to overthrow government and create an Islamic state has caused havoc in Africa‘s oil rich nation through a campaign of bombings and attacks.
Over 30 000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced.
Boko Haram, whose name translates to “Western education is a sin”, in 2014 kidnapped 276 girls from a school in Chibok northeastern Nigeria.
Some escaped, but it took the government three years to negotiate the release of fewer than half of them.
Violence in Nigeria has spread to neighbouring countries prompting a regional military coalition to fight the militant groups.
Nigeria’s Borno state buries 43 farmers killed by militants, dozens missing:
The ICC has conducted investigations in several African countries. Former leaders in Sudan, Libya and Ivory Coast were indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity following the probes.
Bensouda has, however, said that the ICC, set up in 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands, to prosecute atrocities when member states were unwilling or unable to do so themselves, was facing capacity constraints.
Her office’s decision on whether to investigate alleged atrocities in the Palestinian territories is pending.
Bensouda’s term is due to end on June 15, 2021 and her successor has not yet been chosen.
