On February 7, 2014, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, announced in a statement released both in text and on video that she will open a preliminary examination into the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR). Bensouda stated that “the plight of civilians in CAR since September 2012 has gone from bad to worse.” In light of allegations of “killings, acts of rape and sexual slavery, destruction of property, pillaging, torture, forced displacement and recruitment and use of children in hostilities,”  Bensouda “concluded that these incidents and the serious allegations of crimes potentially falling within the jurisdiction of the ICC constitute a new situation, unrelated to the situation previously referred to the ICC by the CAR authorities in December 2004.”