Karim A.A. Khan KC, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), promised to follow up on the DRC’s request that the court “open an investigation into the crimes presumed relevant to the ICC’s jurisdiction committed in province of Nord-Kivu, in the DRC, from January 1, 2022, to the present day” in a statement released on Thursday, June 15.

Karim A.A. Khan KC speaks of his “intention to immediately proceed to an initial examination” of this circumstance.

In accordance with Article 14.1 of the Statute of Rome, the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo submitted a paper to the Bureau of Prosecution of the International Criminal Court.

Kinshasa requested that the Court open an investigation into the crimes that were allegedly committed in the North Kivu from January 1, 2022, until the present.

He recalled that the DRC’s first recommendation, received in mars 2004, asked the Prosecutor to conduct an investigation into offenses that were allegedly committed on DRC’S territory starting on July 1, 2002 and that were allegedly related to the Court’s jurisdiction. It enabled the launch of an investigation in June 2004 and the pursuit of a number of legal actions against those accountable for crimes committed during the armed conflict especially in eastern parts of the country.

According to Karim A.A. Khan KC, “The new report is accompanied by additional documents and requests that the Bureau conduct an investigation into specific armed forces and groups that may be responsible for crimes against the Act of Rome that have been committed in the North Kivu.”

According to him, “all crimes alleged committed in the context of the situation by any person, regardless of his affiliation or his nationality, will be examined.”
The Procureur of the ICC stated, “I intend to immediately conduct a preliminary examination in order to determine, at a preliminary level, if the two situations referred to by the DRC government are sufficiently related to constitute a single and identical problem.