The International Criminal Court's prosecutor arrived in Sudan late Saturday to discuss cooperation with local authorities over bringing to trial those internationally wanted for war crimes and genocide in the country's Darfur conflict, the Sudanese official news agency said, reports AP.
Prime Minister Abdallla Hamdok's office said in a statement that ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and other court officials would stay in Sudan until Wednesday. It is the first announced visit for Bensouda to Sudan.
"The ICC delegation will discuss methods of cooperation between the Government of Sudan and the ICC with regard to the suspects against whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants," read the statement, which did not name any of the suspects. Among those wanted by the international court is former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been in jail in Khartoum since his ouster last year and is facing several trials in Sudanese courts related to his three decades of strongman rule and the uprising that helped oust him.
The conflict in Sudan's Darfur region broke out when rebels from the territory's ethnic central and
sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
Al-Bashir's government responded with a scorched-earth campaign of aerial bombings and unleashed militias known as Janjaweed, who are accused of mass killings and rapes.