1.1 million Somali refugees remaining in neighbouring countries and elsewhere. In the three years since the start of the conflict in South Sudan, the number of refugees in neighbouring countries reached 1 million, while a total of 1.7 million people continued to be displaced within the country, and 4.8 million people were food insecure. Kenya’s government announced its intention to close Dadaab refugee camp, home to 280,000 refugees. Some 260,000 of these people were from Somalia or of Somali descent, who – as a result of other changes to Kenya’s refugee policy – were at risk of being forcibly returned, in violation of international law. IMPUNITY AND FAILURES TO ENSURE JUSTICE Impunity remained a common denominator in all of Africa’s major conflicts, with those suspected of crimes under international law and gross human rights violations rarely held to account. Despite having a clear mandate, the AU had yet to take concrete steps towards setting up a hybrid court for South Sudan, as required by the country’s peace accord. Such a court would represent the most viable option for ensuring accountability for crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict, and for deterring further abuses. Some progress was made towards setting up the Special Criminal Court in CAR, but the vast majority of suspected perpetrators of serious crimes and gross violations of human rights remained at large, free of any arrest or investigations. In addition to the serious weakness of the UN’s CAR peacekeeping mission, impunity remained one of the key drivers of the conflict and civilians faced deadly violence and instability. In Nigeria there was compelling evidence of widespread and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by the military, leading to more than 7,000 mainly young Nigerian men and boys dying in military detention and more than 1,200 people killed in extrajudicial Amnesty International Report 2016/17 executions. However, the government did not take any steps towards investigating such allegations. No one was brought to justice and the violations continued. The International Criminal Court (ICC) declared the charges against Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Arap Sang dismissed, and thus all cases before the ICC in relation to Kenya’s post-election violence in 2007-2008 collapsed. This decision was seen as a major setback by thousands of victims who had yet to see justice. In a betrayal of millions of victims of international crimes across the world, three states in Africa – Burundi, Gambia and South Africa – signalled their intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute. The AU also continued to call on states to disregard their international obligations to arrest Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir despite his being wanted by the ICC on charges of genocide. In May, Uganda failed to arrest visiting President Al-Bashir and hand him over to the ICC, failing hundreds of thousands of people killed or displaced in the Darfur conflict. There were, however, some heartening and historic moments for international justice and accountability. Many African member states of the ICC affirmed their support for and intention to remain within the Rome Statute’s system during the 15th Session of the Assembly of State parties in November. This commitment was previously reflected at July’s AU Summit in Kigali where many countries – including Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia – opposed a call for a mass withdrawal from the Rome Statute. In December, Gambia’s President-elect announced his intention to rescind the government’s decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute. Positive developments included the conviction of Chad’s former President Hissène Habré in May for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed between 1982 and 1990. The Extraordinary African Chambers in Dakar sentenced him to 21