Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger quit the ICC as Félix Tshisekedi asks the world to call Congo's mass crimes genocide. Also here: Sudan's bid to rejoin the AU, Bobi Wine cleared to run in Uganda and Malawi's election result.
In a single issue, African states move in opposite directions on international justice. Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali announced their immediate withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, calling it “an instrument of neocolonial repression,” and residents of Ouagadougou welcomed the Sahel ICC withdrawal as a step toward “complete independence.” At the UN, Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix Tshisekedi asked the world to recognize three decades of mass crimes in his country as “genocost,” genocide driven by economic interests.
The Africa Now bulletin of September 24, 2025 follows these stories through 42 short news items, drawn from official statements, bilateral meetings and speeches at the 80th UN General Assembly.
Scope
Sudan runs through the issue. Prime Minister Kamil Idris pressed AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf to restore the country’s suspended membership, calling the suspension “unfair” toward a founding member. Russia and Sudan signed a transport memorandum covering railways, sea and air ports and civil aviation, Kenya’s William Ruto rejected any attempt to divide the country, and Chad seized 129 weapons from civilians in Sila province, which borders Sudan and hosts thousands of Sudanese refugees.
Russian contacts range from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin’s security talks with the AU’s Bankole Adeoye to a Russian pavilion at a food exhibition in Libya and a Senegalese delegation in Nizhny Novgorod, while Abiy Ahmed called nuclear power “a strategic step toward industrialization and innovation.” Other outside players appear as well: Belarus proposed a trilateral meeting with the presidents of Mozambique and Zimbabwe, Nigeria endorsed China’s Global Governance Initiative, and the Netherlands neared a deal to send rejected asylum seekers to Uganda.
Elections and economics complete the picture: Bobi Wine cleared to challenge Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, Lazarus Chakwera conceding defeat to Peter Mutharika in Malawi, early voting in Seychelles, Zimbabwe’s plan to service external debt with platinum resources, and a $209 million African Development Bank strategy for Lesotho.
Excerpt
Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix Tshisekedi appealed to the international community to recognize mass crimes committed in his country over the past 30 years as “genocost” — genocide driven by economic interests. Speaking at a parallel conference organized by DRC’s permanent mission to the UN, Tshisekedi declared that these crimes, which are “planned and systematic in nature,” meet genocide criteria in several cases. He outlined three areas for action: mapping criminal facts, qualifying them under international law, and creating “a transitional justice mechanism guaranteeing truth, punishment, and reparations.”
Sergey Konyashin, Two African Answers to International Justice (Africa Now, Démarche, September 24, 2025)