An International Criminal Court prosecutor has condemned the recent abduction of 234 Nigerian schoolgirls by extremist Islamic group, Boko Haram.
Fatou Bensouda said crimes by the sect, fall within ICC’s jurisdiction.
In a recent video, the Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility for the April 14 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, threatening to sell them off as slaves.
"The troubling phenomenon of targeting females during conflict cannot be tolerated and must be stopped," said Bensouda.
She urged all-out efforts to bring those responsible for such acts to justice either in Nigeria or at the ICC.
She expressed her support for the victims’ families and the Nigerian people, and demanded the group return the girls unharmed.
The incident has already drawn several pledges of help from the international community.
As Nigeria is a party to the Rome Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on the territory of Nigeria since mid-2002.
In August 2013, the Office of the ICC Prosecutor issued a report concluding there was a reasonable basis to believe Boko Haram had been committing crimes against humanity since July 2009.
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