Over the years, many false claims have been shared on social media to support the movement to divide southeast Nigeria and the release of separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu. The latest claims point to the International Criminal Court (ICC) imposed sanctions on Kanu’s ongoing imprisonment on Nigeria. But this is wrong; Kanu’s case does not list the cases currently being investigated by the court. The International Criminal Court also denied this claim.
“Breaking News: ICC imposed sanctions on all Nigerian goods on Nnamdi Kanu and rewarded him with a $100 million illegal arrest, which they believed was a terror act,” the caption of the post shared on Facebook.
It further claimed that the International Criminal Court announced that sanctions against Nigeria would increase monthly until Kanu was released, and therefore commodity prices could rise by as much as 100%.
Screenshot of False Facebook post, taken on April 22, 2025
The post has been shared over 170 times since its first release on March 28, 2025, and the claims have also appeared elsewhere on Facebook (see here and here).
Kanu led a separatist movement created to create the Biafra Republic. He was arrested in Kenya and extraditioned to Nigeria on June 27, 2021. He faces allegations related to treason (archived here).
His trial resumed on March 21, 2025 after the former judge withdrew himself (reserved here).
However, the claim that the International Criminal Court imposed sanctions on Nigeria and ruled in favor of Kanu’s compensation is wrong.
How sanctions work
State or foreign organizations impose sanctions to punish parties that threaten their national interests or violate international laws.
Types of sanctions include travel bans, arms embargoes, import and export restrictions, asset freezes and sports sanctions (archived here).
Bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have imposed sanctions on countries in the past (archived here).
However, the ICC cannot impose sanctions on states because it only prosecutes individuals (archived here).
The International Criminal Court operates under Roman statutes that allow it to prosecute four major crimes (archived here).
These include genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression (when one country attacks the sovereignty of another) and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, imprisonment, forced disappearance, especially the slavery of women and children – sex slavery, torture, torture, torture, apartheid and deportation.
In addition, among those currently being investigated by the ICC, Nnamdi Kanu’s case has not been listed.
ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah told AFP in an email.
ICC Investigation in Nigeria
Since 2009, the ICC has investigated alleged crimes committed by Boko Haram and allegedly Nigerian security forces have begun to repel crimes committed by Nigerian security forces from militant groups (archived here).
Boko Haram was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 2014 and gave birth to separatist groups – including Ansaru, which is linked to al-Qaeda (archived here).
An initial investigation by the International Criminal Court was conducted in December 2020 (archived here).
Since then, the ICC has been holding talks with the Nigerian Government on this situation (archived here).
However, whether it is a member of Boko Haram or the Security Force (archived here), the court has not issued any warrants for Nigerians.
AFP fact-check previously debunked the ICC’s claim to issue a warrant for the president of the Nigerian Senate.
