Chad announces its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.

The Chadian government announced on Monday, July 27, its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that it had officially notified this decision to the Secretary General of the United Nations, the custodian of the Rome Statute.

According to the statement, this step is in accordance with the provisions of Article 127 of the Rome Statute. The government specified that this is a “sovereign decision” made after reviewing the court’s operation since its establishment in 2002.

N’Djamena believes that the ICC’s record “has remained limited and variable compared to the expectations that led to its creation.” Chadian authorities also denounce the “undeniable selectivity established as a principle” in handling cases.

To support its position, the government recalls that the Court’s initial investigations mainly concerned African countries, notably Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Kenya, Libya, Ivory Coast, Mali, and Burundi.

Citing data from the ICC as of May 11, 2026, N’Djamena points out that the Court only has seven individuals in detention, six of whom are being prosecuted in African cases. A situation that, according to the authorities, fuels “a lasting concentration of the Court’s judicial activity on the Global South in general and the African continent in particular.”

This announcement comes a few weeks after the visit to Chad by the ICC’s Deputy Prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan. It also follows similar decisions recently made by Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali, members of the Sahel States Alliance (AES).

Founded in 2002 and based in The Hague, Netherlands, the International Criminal Court is responsible for prosecuting alleged perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and, in some cases, the crime of aggression. Before Chad, Burundi in 2017 and the Philippines in 2019 had already completed their withdrawal from the jurisdiction.