The alleged crimes must be the gravest of atrocity crimes. The ICC OTP determines gravity by looking at the scale, nature, manner and impact of the alleged crimes.

Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus were charged with killing 12 African Union peacekeepers in 2007. Despite the relatively small number of deaths, the Court found that the crime also is an attack on the millions of civilians the peacekeepers were sent to protect and, thus, meets the gravity threshold.