2024-03-28 11:37:00
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Responding to the statement issued by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the conclusion of an official visit to Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, said:
“Once again, the Prosecutor’s Office demonstrates its slow abandonment of the victims and survivors of the conflict in northeastern Nigeria. Instead of investigating atrocities, the OTP’s rare visits to Nigeria consist mainly of meeting with national authorities”.
“This month marks 10 years since the massacre carried out by the Nigerian army, which massacred at least 640 men and boys who had escaped from the Giwa barracks in Maiduguri, Borno state, after an attack by Boko Haram. This horrific anniversary is now accompanied by a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office that says that the victims must continue waiting for justice.”
In December 2020, the ICC prosecutor decided that an investigation into Nigeria was warranted, on the grounds that Nigerian authorities were unwilling or unable to genuinely investigate and prosecute the numerous crimes committed in the northeast of the country by members of Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces. Despite this 2020 decision, the Prosecutor’s Office has not yet taken any official steps to open an investigation.
“Taking into account its 2020 decision, yesterday’s statement only further confirms that the Prosecutor’s Office neglects its legal duty to investigate when States do not do so. The statement also demonstrates the hollowness of the Prosecutor’s commitment to the Nigerian victims, whom it did not directly visit in the northeast.”
Additional information
Both the armed group Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. Amnesty International has documented many of these crimes, including March 2014 Giwa barracks massacre.
From March 19 to 22, 2024, the ICC Prosecutor’s Office visited Abuja, Nigeria. After his trip, he published a declaration in which he does not offer any update on the situation before the ICC.
On December 11, 2020, after 10 years of preliminary examination, the former ICC prosecutor closed the preliminary examination on Nigeria after concluding that crimes against humanity and war crimes had been committed and that the Nigerian authorities had failed to genuinely investigate and prosecute these crimes, thus warranting a full investigation by the ICC. Since that decision, the Prosecutor’s Office has not yet requested the opening of an investigation.
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