Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have officially initiated their withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, the ICC has confirmed.

The three military-led West African nations first told the court of their intentions in September.

The three former ECOWAS members established the Alliance of Sahel States in 2024. The confederation has since cut ties with former colonial power France and many other Western nations, turning instead to Russian mercenaries for military support.

They’ve now begun the year-long process of withdrawing from the Rome Statute that established the war crimes tribunal.

The Hague-based court prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression when national courts are unable to act.

In announcing their plans to leave, the three Sahel states denounced the ICC as a “tool of neocolonial repression.”

The court currently has 125 members nations but several major powers including China, India, Russia, the US and Israel have not joined.

Countries leaving the court “risks undermining the collective pursuit of justing and weakening global efforts to end impunity,” the body said in a statement on Wednesday.