Fatou Bensouda’s announcement comes as violence continues to wreak havoc in the northeast, where scores of persons were slaughtered by Boko Haram jihadists two weeks ago.
Bensouda in a statement said following a thorough process she can announce that the statutory criteria for opening an investigation into the situation in Nigeria have been met.
ICC prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into the situation in Nigeria in 2010 but Bensouda now wants permission from judges to proceed to a full-blown formal probe.
Gambian-born Bensouda specifically referred to acts committed by Boko Haram, whose 11-year insurgency in the country have claimed the lives of at least thirty-six people while two million others have been displaced, according to UN figures.
In a related development; the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, says the court has found a reasonable basis to begin investigating members of the Nigerian Security Forces for crimes against humanity, which they allegedly committed in the course of prosecuting the counter-insurgency war in the North-East.
Bensouda said the ICC was probing the Nigerian Armed Forces for conscripting children below the age of fifteen into the military and using them to participate actively in hostilities; persecution on gender and political grounds; and other inhumane acts.
Bensouda said just like the Boko Haram insurgents, members of the Nigerian Security Forces were facing allegations of war crimes like murder, rape, torture and cruel treatment, are being probed by the ICC.
Apart from these, Bensouda said the ICC was probing members of the Nigerian Security Forces for enforced disappearance; forcible transfer of population; outrages upon personal dignity; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such and against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; unlawful imprisonment.
This was contained in a press release titled, ‘Statement of the Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria.
