The International Criminal Court has enlisted members of the Nigerian Security Forces for investigation for crimes against humanity, which they allegedly committed in the course of prosecuting the counter-insurgency war in the North-East.
The Prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda said the ICC was probing the Nigerian Armed Forces for conscripting children below the age of 15 into the military and “using them to participate actively in hostilities; persecution on gender and political grounds; and other inhumane acts.”
He disclosed that the ICC was probing members of the Nigerian Security Forces for “enforced disappearance; forcible transfer of population; outrages upon personal dignity; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such and against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities and unlawful imprisonment.”
This prosecutor made this known in a press release on Saturday titled, ‘Statement of the Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria’.
The press release quoted Bensouda to have said, “These allegations are also sufficiently grave to warrant investigation by my office, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.”
Explaining that decision of the ICC to begin investigation Bensouda said, “Today, I announce the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria.
“As I stated last year at the annual Assembly of States Parties before I end my term as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, I intend to reach determinations on all files that have been under preliminary examination under my tenure, as far as I am able. In that statement, I also indicated the high likelihood that several preliminary examinations would progress to the investigative stage. Following a thorough process, I can announce today that the statutory criteria for opening an investigation into the situation in Nigeria have been met.”
