The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, has called for the commencement of a formal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Nigeria.
This follows a decade-long investigation into violence in the Northeast involving Boko Haram insurgents.
According to the BBC, Bensouda said the vast majority of crimes were by “non-state actors”, but that the Nigerian Security Forces also needs to be investigated.
Eko Hot Blog understands that the conflict has killed more than 30,000 and displaced over two million people in the Northeast.
The ICC’s preliminary examination, which itself began in 2010, has now concluded that the “criteria for opening an investigation into the situation in Nigeria have been met”.
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Bensouda listed a long list of acts allegedly carried out by Boko Haram that constituted crimes against humanity and war crimes to include murder, rape, sexual slavery, torture, persecution, hostage taking and enlisting children under the age of 15 into armed groups.
She said that while “the vast majority of criminality within the situation is attributable to non-state actors”, there was “reasonable basis to believe that members of the Nigerian Security Forces (NSF)” had committed crimes.
Bensouda said that it was her conviction that these crimes should be prosecuted under the Nigerian justice system but, while some efforts had been made, they had not pursued the suspects the ICC believed should stand trial.
She however called for financial support for her office from the Nigerian and ICC-funding parties.
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