Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announce their withdrawal from the International Criminal Court

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, three Sahelian countries governed by soldiers, their withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Monday evening, with a “Neoc -colonial repression instrument in the hands of imperialism”. These countries, who have authoritarian junts that came to power between 2020 and 2023, claim a sovereignistic policy and have turned their backs on the West.

In a joint press release, the three Allied countries said in a Confederation, the Alliance of the States of the Sahel (AES), which made this decision “With immediate effect” is part of their will “To fully apply their sovereignty”. “The ICC has not been able to take the lead and to assess war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide and proven aggression crime”said the AES says.

They also said they wanted to rest themselves “Endogenic mechanisms for consolidation of peace and justice” : They should soon create a Sahelic Criminal Court. The withdrawal of a state only comes into force one year after the official deposit of the file at the General Secretariat of the United Nations.

The AES countries in particular have approached other partners, such as Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin has since March 2023 the target by an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children. They are confronted with fatal violence of the jihadist groups related to al-Qaeda and the organization of the Islamic State, but their armies are also accused of crimes against citizens.

The institution regularly criticizes

Founded in 2002, the mission of the International Criminal Court is to pursue the authors of the most serious crimes committed in the world, when countries do not have the will or the ability to do it yourself. So far she had 125 members. The United States and Russia are not part, nor Israel, China or Burma. Hungary closed the door earlier this year, in response to the arrest warrant against the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

The institution regularly wipes criticism, especially in African countries where it is accused of pursuing mainly personalities on the continent. She condemned the Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda to thirty years in prison or the Malian jihadist chef al-Hassan up to ten years in prison, in particular war crimes.

But she also acquitted former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, his former right-wing man Charles Blé Goudé or the former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba. In 2016, three African countries – Gambia, South Africa and Burundi – had considered their departure, but in the end the first two gave up.

In September, the ICC accused the former Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity. The latter was arrested in March and transferred to the Netherlands where the ICC and the penitentiary district are located.