The African Union (AU) has agreed to come up with a “road-map” which will lead to its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
New AU chairman, Chad’s President Idriss Deby accused the ICC of targeting African leaders.
Deby said that the AU was waiting for the ICC to address its concerns.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who put forward the proposal, said that he and his deputy William Ruto have been subjected to “cases built with weak investigations and pursued with politicised zeal” by the ICC.
Kenyatta, in a hard-hitting statement before the adoption of the resolution, also asked the AU to apply pressure on the ICC to terminate the case against Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang, terming the Rome statute “a dysfunctional instrument”.
“In the face of a mutating global terrorist threat that is costing us lives and great economic loss, in the midst of playing our part in mediating multiple peace processes in our region, we have to contend with an ICC pursuing weak and politicised cases. This has become a huge distraction from our duty to serve our people and this continent fully,” said the Kenyan President.
