Nicaragua has formally requested to join the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel, the International Court of Justice announced Thursday.

A statement issued by the court said that Nicaragua stated in its application for permission to intervene that it had “interests of a legal nature that flow from the rights and obligations imposed by the Genocide Convention on all States Parties.”

The court added that Managua said its decision stemmed from “the universal nature of the condemnation of genocide and the cooperation required to liberate humanity from such a hateful scourge.”

The Central American country announced last month that it intends to join Pretoria in the lawsuit that accuses Israel of violating the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention of Genocide due to its war on the Gaza Strip, which it has been waging since October 7, 2023.

Two weeks ago, the court's judges issued a decision to impose emergency measures on Israel, saying it must prevent acts of genocide in its war on the Gaza Strip, but they stopped short of calling for an end to the fighting.

In its request, Nicaragua called on the judges to rule that Israel “has violated and continues to violate its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” and to “stop actions or actions that would kill or continue to kill Palestinians.”

Throughout history, the Court has only in rare cases agreed to such intervention requested by Nicaragua.

Several other countries have indicated that they may wish to intervene in the Gaza genocide case, but none have done so formally except Nicaragua.

Israel is waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive infrastructure destruction, which led to Tel Aviv appearing before the International Court of Justice to be tried on charges of “genocide” for the first time in its history.

Determining whether Israel is indeed violating the Genocide Convention with its military campaign will likely take months, if not years.

Source: Agencies