Open Letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC): The Plight of the Hausa Ethnic Group
To the Esteemed Members of the International Criminal Court,
We, the undersigned members and representatives of the Hausa ethnic group, write to you with heavy hearts and an unwavering hope that justice will prevail. Our communities are under siege. Our people are being killed, displaced, and traumatized. We appeal to your conscience and commitment to justice to urgently intervene in the humanitarian crisis unfolding across the Hausa heartlands of Northern Nigeria.
Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity For years, Hausa towns and villages have suffered from continuous, systematic attacks by armed Fulani bandits. These attacks are not random or isolated. They are part of a calculated, ethnically targeted campaign that bears all the hallmarks of crimes against humanity—and possibly genocide. The perpetrators execute their crimes with impunity, torching entire settlements, abducting women and children, slaughtering innocent civilians, and wiping out entire families.
Entire communities have been uprooted. Our people are forced to flee their ancestral homes, seeking refuge in makeshift camps without adequate food, water, or security. Our traditional rulers, community leaders, and clerics have been silenced or murdered. This is not mere banditry—it is ethnic cleansing, and it is being enabled by the silence and inaction of the Nigerian state.
State Complicity and Institutional Silence
What deepens our anguish is the blatant protection afforded to these bandits by powerful elements within the state. Influential Fulani elites and religious scholars have used their platforms not to condemn these crimes, but to normalize them, defend the perpetrators, and obstruct justice. Government responses have been either nonexistent or woefully inadequate—often suspiciously absent in areas experiencing the worst violence.
The ethnic composition of the leadership in Nigeria has fostered a dangerous environment of favoritism and impunity. Despite numerous pleas for protection, security forces are routinely withdrawn or ordered to stand down, allowing the attackers free rein. This deliberate neglect is tantamount to complicity.
A Call for International Justice
We turn to the International Criminal Court because every local avenue has failed us. We possess irrefutable evidence: photographs of mass graves, videos of burning villages, testimonies from survivors, and credible reports from humanitarian observers. The cries of our people echo in every corner of Hausaland—and yet the world remains silent.
We call on the ICC to:
- Initiate a preliminary examination into the situation in Northern Nigeria, with specific focus on ethnically motivated violence against the Hausa people.
- Investigate the roles of state actors and Fulani elites in enabling or facilitating these crimes.
- Recognize the atrocities being committed as crimes against humanity and potential genocide.
- Hold accountable all those responsible—whether through direct violence or through obstruction of justice, incitement, or dereliction of duty.
- Recommend reparations and restitution for the victims and displaced communities.
A Plea for Peace, Dignity, and Justice
This is not just a regional issue—it is a matter of global human rights. When an ethnic group is targeted, displaced, and dehumanized without consequences, the entire world order based on justice and dignity begins to crumble. The Hausa people, like all others, have a right to live in peace on their ancestral lands. We are farmers, traders, scholars, and builders of civilization. We are not at war with our neighbors, but we are being exterminated.
We plead with the international community not to look away. Stand with us. Help us. Let not the cries of our women and children be in vain. Let the world remember that silence in the face of evil is complicity.
Justice must prevail—not just for the Hausa people, but for the future of human rights and international law.
Yours faithfully,
Hausa Native Advancement and Development Initiative
On Behalf of the Hausa People
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