N’Djamena has made its decision. On Monday, July 27, the Chadian government officially notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations of its decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. The move was presented by authorities as an « act of sovereignty, » further isolating the Hague-based institution on the African continent.
In a statement signed by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and Chadians Abroad, Ibrahim Adam Mahamat, the government said it had conducted a « thorough review » of the Court’s operations since it began work in 2002. The verdict was unequivocal: the ICC stands accused of an « undeniable selectivity elevated to a principle, » to the detriment of African countries.
To support this accusation, N’Djamena relies on official Court statistics as of May 11, 2026. At that date, the Rome Statute counted one hundred and twenty-five states parties, thirty-three of them African. Yet of the thirteen investigations opened since the tribunal’s creation, nine concern the continent directly: Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur in Sudan, the Central African Republic, Kenya, Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Burundi. The Chadian government also notes that six of the seven people then held by the Court were being prosecuted in African cases, while situations opened outside the continent have, in its view, progressed far more slowly.
A government statement, cited by several outlets, described the Court’s effectiveness as « limited and of variable geometry. » Under Article 127 of the Rome Statute, however, the withdrawal will not be immediate: it will only take effect a year from now, on July 27, 2027. Until then, Chad remains legally bound by its obligations, and the ICC retains jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes committed on Chadian territory or by Chadian nationals before that date.
By leaving the Rome Statute, Chad joins a wave of defiance already well underway in West and Central Africa. Burundi paved the way back in 2017. More recently, the three countries of the Alliance of Sahel States — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — formally notified their own withdrawal between June 18 and 24, 2026, after announcing their intention to do so in September 2025. Those military-led governments described the ICC as an « instrument of neocolonial repression. » Like its Sahelian neighbors, N’Djamena is now calling on the African Union and its member states to speed up the creation of regional judicial mechanisms it wants to see become « credible, fair and effective, » while reaffirming its own commitment to fighting impunity.
The decision, however, sits within a far more complex diplomatic backdrop than a simple legal dispute. According to several sources, Chad’s reassessment of the Rome Statute followed direct exchanges with American diplomacy. Last Thursday, the US Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs reportedly urged the Chadian government, during a phone call, to reconsider its membership in the Court, reiterating Washington’s longstanding reservations about the international tribunal. Chad’s Foreign Minister, Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul, nonetheless pushed back on this framing when speaking to AFP, insisting that « it is not at the request of the Americans » that his country made this decision.
The timing of the announcement also raises questions in light of the Sudanese file. Chad has indeed been accused by the Sudanese army and several non-governmental organizations of facilitating the transfer of weapons from the United Arab Emirates to the Rapid Support Forces, which have been at war with the regular army since April 2023. A Sudanese NGO even filed a complaint with the ICC last December against several senior Chadian officials, including President Mahamat Idriss Déby.
For human rights defenders, this withdrawal sends a troubling signal. It weakens, in their view, the international framework of criminal justice and heightens the risk that perpetrators of the gravest crimes will permanently escape prosecution. On the diplomatic front, the rupture could also strain relations between N’Djamena, the European Union and several non-governmental organizations involved in funding justice and human rights projects in Chad, while giving the government greater room to maneuver in the face of international investigations targeting its defense and security forces.