The Gambia has joined South Africa and Burundi in withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) after accusing the tribunal of persecuting and humiliating Africans.
The small West African nation’s Information Minister Sheriff Bojang said the court had ignored Western war crimes citing an example of how the ICC had failed to indict former British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war, the BBC reports.
Speaking on state television, he said the ICC was “an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans”.
The ICC was set up to try the world’s worst crimes but has been accused of unfairly targeting African leaders.
The court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is a former Gambian justice minister.
The country has been unsuccessfully trying to have the European Union indicted by the court over the deaths of thousands of African migrants trying to reach the continent by boat.
Last week, South Africa said it had formally begun the process of withdrawing from the ICC because it did not want to execute arrest warrants which would lead to “regime change”.
Burundi has also said it will leave the court, while other Africa countries like Kenya and Namibia have said they might.
All but one of the ICC’s 10 investigations have been Africa-based.
