A man holds a Palestinian flag during the inauguration of Gaza Street in support of the Palestinian people, in Managua, Nicaragua.   (Photo by AFP)

Managua, April 12 (RHC)-- Nicaragua has shut down its embassy in Germany after taking the West European country to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for facilitating Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Nicaragua announced the closure of its diplomatic mission in Berlin on Wednesday, noting that the Central American state’s consular tasks and official businesses in Germany will now be handled by the embassy in Austria.  Managua recently announced the accreditation of its ambassador in Vienna, Sabra Amari Murillo Centeno, as a concurrent representative in Germany.

Earlier this week, hearings opened in the ICJ, with Nicaragua saying Germany is violating the 1948 Genocide Convention by providing Israel with military and financial aid, as well as suspending funding to the main UN humanitarian agency in Gaza, UNRWA.

Asking The Hague-based court to issue emergency orders, Nicaragua said Germany's arms sales to the Tel Aviv regime make it complicit in the Gaza war crimes.  “There can be no question that Germany . . . was well aware, and is well aware, of at least the serious risk of genocide being committed,” Nicaraguan Ambassador to the Netherlands Carlos Jose Francisco Arguello Gomez said in his opening statement to the ICJ.

“Germany is failing to honor its own obligation to prevent genocide or to ensure respect of international humanitarian law.”

In a separate case brought by South Africa in January, the ICJ ruled that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.   

Germany — Israel’s second-largest arms provider, after the United States — sold weapons worth 326.5 million euros ($354 million), a tenfold increase compared to 2022.