Nigeria, It’s Time the International Criminal Court Investigates

It has been nine years since the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) began a preliminary examination into the situation in Nigeria. The primary focus was on war crimes and other serious crimes against humanity committed during the armed conflict between the Islamic militant group Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces.

The Office of the Prosecutor has expressed its dissatisfaction several times over the lack of investigations by the Nigerian justice system to meet the criteria on crimes established under the Rome Statute.

On 5 December, the Prosecutor of the ICC published the annual report on preliminary examinations completed in 2019 and, obviously, Nigeria is documented.

The report announces that the Prosecutor will decide whether to proceed with investigations on specific crimes in 2020. At that point, Nigerian victims of war crimes will have waited 10 years. An extremely long time to wait.