The military-led governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger on Monday announced their withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), denouncing it as “a tool of neocolonial repression.”
The announcement, made in a joint statement published on Monday, marks another diplomatic rupture in West Africa’s Sahel region, which has experienced eight coups between 2020 and 2023.
The three countries, ruled by military officers, have already split from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS and formed a new body known as the Alliance of Sahel States. They have also reduced defence cooperation with Western powers and sought closer ties with Russia.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have been members of the ICC, based in The Hague, for more than two decades. But in their statement, they said they viewed the court as incapable of prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and genocide. They did not specify examples where they believed the ICC had fallen short.
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All three nations are battling Islamist militant groups that control large swathes of territory and have carried out frequent attacks on military installations this year. Human Rights Watch and other organisations have accused both militants and the armed forces of Burkina Faso and Mali, along with their partner forces, of possible atrocity crimes.
In April, United Nations experts said the alleged summary execution of several dozen civilians by Malian forces could amount to war crimes.
The ICC has had an open investigation in Mali since 2013 into alleged war crimes committed mainly in the northern regions of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, which had briefly fallen under militant control. France intervened later that year to push back the insurgents. The Mali investigation was opened following a referral from the government at the time.
