The International Criminal Court has revealed that it intends to investigate the military and the Boko Haram insurgents for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It said it had found reasons to believe that members of the Nigerian security forces and the insurgents have committed murder, rape, torture, and cruel treatment, including enforced disappearance and hostage-taking.
The ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, disclosed on Friday, that preliminary investigations also indicate that the military equally carried out the forcible transfer of population; outrages upon personal dignity; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population and individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities.
Bensouda in a statement also alleged that the troops engaged in unlawful imprisonment; conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years into the armed forces and using them to participate actively in hostilities.
The statement titled, ‘Statement of the Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria,’ followed the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria, which commenced since 2010.
This is happening five days after Amnesty International said that the military and the insurgents have killed many aged citizens at disproportionate levels due to their inability to flee attacks.
In a 67-page report titled ‘My heart is in pain: Older people’s experience of conflict, displacement, and detention in North-East Nigeria’, the rights group disclosed that older people were killed both by the terrorist group and the military.
The officer of the ICC prosecutor had announced its findings on crimes in Nigeria since 2013 and about two months ago, promised to conduct a preliminary investigation into the conduct of security operatives in the country.
