Darfur Deadlock Update: Nigeria Proposes African Alternative to ICC

Reuters reports that Nigeria is proposing an African court to try war crimes arising out of the Darfur crisis in Sudan. This may break the continuing deadlock (which I first discussed here)between the EU and the U.S. over whether the Security Council should refer Darfur to the ICC. Nigeria’s proposal is exactly what the U.S. has been looking for. Whether this will convince the Europeans (or the Chinese, who oppose action on Darfur for other reasons) is unclear, but it appears to be a (small) diplomatic victory for the new Secretary of State.