ICC: Gambia joins Burundi, S. Africa to quit ICC

The West African country of Gambia has announced it is quitting the International Criminal Court (ICC) after accusing the world body of ignoring the “war crimes” of Western nations and seeking only to prosecute Africans. Gambia now joins Burundi and South Africa which days ago announced they were quitting The Hague-based tribunal. The move is coming after Gambian president Yahya Jammeh, repeatedly called on the court to investigate African migrant deaths on the Mediterranean sea. “This action is warranted by the fact that the ICC, despite being called the International Criminal Court, is in fact an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans,” Information Minister Sheriff Bojang said on state television. “There are many Western countries, at least 30, that have committed heinous war crimes against independent sovereign states and their citizens since the creation of the ICC and not a single Western war criminal has been indicted,” it said.