Three African countries ruled by military juntas have announced that they will pull out of the International Criminal Court, accusing it of “selective justice.”
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — three countries in Africa’s arid Sahel region whose governments were overthrown by military coups in recent years — said in a statement released on Monday that the court was run by a “closed circle of beneficiaries” that acted with “international impunity.”
The I.C.C. was created more than two decades ago in Italy, where 120 states adopted the Rome Statute, the legal basis for the court. The United States never joined, for fear that it would eventually try Americans.
The statement said the three countries would use internal methods to ensure peace and justice in their nations, and that they would protect human rights and fight against impunity.
Their justification for leaving reflects an opinion held by many across the continent that the I.C.C. is preoccupied with targeting Africans. Critics of the court point out that the vast majority of the individuals indicted have been African.
Of the 33 cases the I.C.C. has opened since its inception, 32 have been against Africans — with the one exception being Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, who was charged with crimes against humanity.
Some experts said that the three countries’ real reason for leaving might be a fear of prosecution for human rights violations.
“It may be a case of the juntas trying to minimize their potential exposure to the I.C.C.,” said Owiso Owiso, an expert in international law. “If that’s the case, then what appears to be performative Pan-Africanism is a very convenient excuse.”
He said it could also be a case of “solidarity with a friend,” meaning Russia, which has grown closer to the Sahelian nations since their the military takeovers. Moscow recently pledged support for the countries’ planned joint military force of 5,000 soldiers. (The I.C.C. issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin in 2023.)
Last year, over half of all terrorism-related deaths globally occurred in the Sahel, according to the Global Terrorism Index, and the juntas have been widely accused of a heavy-handed response. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in attacks that may constitute war crimes and genocide, according to human rights reports.
In Burkina Faso, the military executed more than 220 civilians in February 2024, including at least 56 children, according to Human Rights Watch.
In Mali, the government and the armed forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity alongside mercenaries from Wagner, the private Russian military group, United Nations experts have said. In one massacre in 2022, hundreds of villagers were executed.
And in Niger, where the elected president remains in detention in the presidential palace, Amnesty International described rights violations and military abuses against civilians, including a drone strike that killed 50 villagers.
The juntas of the three countries have become increasingly autocratic since seizing power, suppressing dissent, jailing opponents and journalists and scrapping elections.
Withdrawal from the I.C.C. takes a year to come into effect after notification is given to the United Nations secretary-general. South Africa, Gambia and Burundi have all announced their intentions to leave the court in the past, but only Burundi ended up withdrawing, in 2017.
Many of the Africans investigated by the I.C.C. have been referred to the court by their own governments.
One such man — in a case that represented one of the I.C.C.’s most notable successes in recent years — was from Mali. A member of an extremist group, Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, was convicted of destroying cultural heritage in the fabled city of Timbuktu in 2016. International law experts hoped the case would lead to similar prosecutions in Syria and Iraq.
The court has repeatedly come under fire, especially from the United States.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on several of its judges after the court issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, accusing him of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
In an executive order issued in February, President Trump said that the court had “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”
In an emailed response to questions after the three African countries announced the decision to withdraw, the court declined to comment.
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa.
Saikou Jammeh is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Dakar, Senegal.
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