N’Djamena (AFP) – Chad became on Monday the latest country to announce plans to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), complaining the tribunal’s effectiveness was “limited and uneven” and its activities were focused on Africa.

The move follows pressure from the United States, which earlier this month announced a campaign against the ICC, threatening more sanctions and accusing it of posing “an intolerable threat to US sovereignty”.

This month, Venezuela and the military juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger also started the process of leaving the ICC, based in The Hague, which prosecutes individuals for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Burundi and the Philippines have already withdrawn.

Chad’s announcement follows “an in-depth review of the functioning of the International Criminal Court since it began operating in 2002, as well as its record, whose effectiveness remains limited and uneven”, the government said in a statement.

It accused the ICC of concentrating on African countries.

Out of the 13 investigations launched by the court since it came into force, nine concern African states and just four in other regions of the world, it said.

“The court has only seven people in custody, six of whom are being prosecuted in African situations,” it added.

The Chadian foreign minister’s official Facebook page posted a statement last week saying the US had pressed the government in Niamey to reconsider its ICC membership.

“The American side expressed its concerns about the functioning of this institution and called on Chad to review its accession to the Rome Statute,” it said of the phone call on Thursday between US deputy secretary of state for African affairs Frank Garcia and Chadian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul.

On Friday, however, Sabre Fadoul told AFP “it was not at the Americans’ request that we decided to withdraw from the ICC”.

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