Cape Town –  The International Criminal Court (ICC), at the Hague was not set up to target Africans only but rather to work to prevent impunity in the continent, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said.

Annan said this while  presenting the Africa Progress Panel Report for 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa, on Thursday.

“The ICC is not after Africans, even though  African cases are many before them,”  he said in response to a question.

He explained that cases of the African leaders came to the International Court because African countries had not developed their institutions to be able to handle such issues that were brought before the court.

“If Africa develops its institutions to be able to handle such cases themselves they will not refer them to the ICC, but until that is done, the victims need justice.

“If we do not take these steps, impunity will continue and  we all complain about corruption and impunity,”  the Southern Africa correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria quotes him as saying.

Annan said he looked forward to the day African governments will have institutions to try these cases themselves and not resort to Hague.(NAN)