Burundi become the first country to withdraw from International Criminal Court (ICC)
Burundi has become the first country to leave the International
Criminal Court (ICC) a year after it lodged its notice of withdrawal.
The East African country had accused the ICC of deliberately targeting Africans for prosecution.
In
September, the UN Commission of Inquiry into Burundi accused the
government of committing crimes against humanity, including executions
and torture, and urged the ICC to open a prosecution as soon as
possible.
Fadi El-Abdallah, the spokesman for the ICC, told the
BBC Newsday programme that the withdrawal would not affect the the
court's ongoing investigations in the country.
"Article 127
states that withdrawal does not affect the jurisdiction of the ICC over
the the crimes that have been committed while the state was a state
party," he said.
The court has 122 member countries, 34 are African, the largest continental bloc.
In
2015 Burundi was plunged into its worst crisis since the end of a civil
war in 2005, when President Pierre Nkurunziza's push for a third term
in office sparked protests by opposition supporters who said the move
was unconstitutional.
South Africa and Kenya have also
threatened to renounce their membership of the court accusing it of
unfairly targeting of African countries.
BBC
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