South Africa Withdraws from International Criminal Court over Bias Towards West

Abeed Babila, Deputy Minister of State Institutions in South Africa, announced that the ruling African National Congress party decided to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC) until 2025 after it turned into a Western tool.

Babila said, "The African National Congress decided to withdraw from the court, and the papers were submitted and the study was conducted, and it was agreed upon at the party's 55th conference. Therefore, I believe that South Africa should withdraw from the International Criminal Court and review the policy at the African National Party conference in 2025."

He considered that the West uses the court as a political tool, pointing out that South Africa opposes such bias by an international organization.

Babila indicated that the issue of South Africa's withdrawal from the court became a topic of discussion for the first time in 2016-2017, when the then President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, arrived in South Africa, and despite his arrest warrant issued by the court, South Africa refused to arrest him.