Africa in the dock as new ICC prosecutor takes over

The Hague:?Newly inaugurated International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda takes over 15 cases being probed in seven different countries, all of them in Africa:
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Kenya
Two leading presidential candidates, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, are among four prominent Kenyans the ICC ruled should face trial for crimes against humanity over deadly post-election violence in 2007 to 2008 in which at least 1,100 people died. Prosecutors were given the court's permission in March 2010 to investigate the violence.
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Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo on November 30, 2011 became the first former head of state to be transferred to the ICC. He faces four counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and inhuman acts, over post-election violence from December 2010 to April 2011, which the UN said cost about 3,000 lives. Gbagbo had refused to concede defeat in November 2010 polls.
A hearing to determine whether he should go to trial will be held in August.
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Libya
Since June 27, 2011 Seif al-Islam Kadhafi has been subject to an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity committed during the rebellion which took place from February 15 last year and eventually toppled the regime of his father Moamer Kadhafi, who was then killed.
The ICC has been involved in a tug-of-war with Tripoli over whether Seif al-Islam should be tried in a Libyan court or in The Hague.
Seif al-Islam was arrested on November 19 and the ICC had given Libya extra time to mull whether he should be handed over, saying it did not have to do so while contesting the ICC's jurisdiction.
Libya detained four ICC staff who visited Seif last week, accusing one of them of carrying a secret camera and attempting to pass him a coded letter from his former right-hand man Mohammed Ismail, who is on the run.
On November 22 the ICC announced it was formally dropping the case against his father after seeing his death certificate.
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Sudan
Six people, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, face an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the western region of Darfur.
A civil war that broke out in 2003 has claimed some 300,000 lives according to UN figures, while Khartoum puts the figure at 10,000. In 2010, the ICC added a genocide charge against Bashir. Two arrest warrants have also been issued against a former minister and a militia leader.
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Democratic Republic of Congo
The ICC reached a milestone with the end of its first trial in August, 2011, against former militia chief Thomas Lubanga, convicted in March this year of war crimes for enrolling child soldiers in 2002-03. The prosecution has asked for a 30 year sentence against the former warlord.
Congolese militia leaders Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes, have been before the court for an attack on a village in 2003.
The prosecutor has also asked for arrest warrants for Rwandan rebel chief Sylvestre Mudacumura and Congolese warlord, Bosco "Terminator" Ntaganda.
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Central African Republic
Former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba has been in detention in The Hague since 2008, suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) rebels in the neighbouring Central African Republic between October 2002 and March 2003. Bemba's troops supported CAR President Ange-Felix Patasse against a rebellion led by Francois Bozize, now the country's president.
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Uganda
The ICC in 2005 issued arrest warrants against Joseph Kony and other top commanders of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) for crimes against humanity and war crimes including the enlisting of child soldiers and sexual slavery, committed between 2002 and 2004. Kony's arrest recently became the subject of an intense Internet campaign.
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