On December 16, 2024, a facebook user @ChibuikeUmehYanky put up a post claiming that the International Criminal Court, ICC, had summoned the Nigerian military for the extrajudicial killings and occupation of Biafraland and that the Nigerian government created a faceless group called Igbo National Council to water down the entire situation.
This claim was also posted across other platforms and can be seen here and here.
VERIFICATION
NV-A conducted a thorough google search with the keywords ‘ICC Nigerian military and Biafraland investigation’ and ‘Igbo National Council,’ the search results turned up with some articles from news outlets but nothing related to a summon by the ICC for the Nigerian military regarding anything in Biafraland.
The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 and is in the Dutch city of the Hague. Their main focus is investigating and prosecuting individuals accused of the most serious crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
NV-A’s research found that the International Criminal Court has been examining Nigeria since 2010 on a wide range of alleged crimes committed on Nigerian territory. The ICC started their preliminary examinations focused primarily on alleged crimes committed by the terrorist group Boko Haram since 2009 and by the Nigerian security forces from the beginning of the non-international armed conflict between the Nigerian security forces and Boko Haram in 2011.
The investigation found reasonable basis to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed and there have been multiple visits by investigators to Nigeria on the matter as well. Also, the ICC have examined alleged crimes that fall outside the context of these conflicts but there is no mention of Biafra or a summon to the Nigerian military.
CONCLUSION
The claim that the International Criminal Court, ICC, summoned the Nigerian military regarding killings and occupation of Biafraland is FALSE. While there have been investigations and examinations from ICC regarding Nigeria, there has been no investigation or summon from the ICC on matters concerning Biafra.
