Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashi flees Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. REUTERS photo

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has left Nigeria after human rights lawyers and civil rights activists demanded his arrest, a Sudanese diplomat said on July 16.

Al-Bashir has been charged by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors with masterminding genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, which has left some 200,000 people dead. The diplomat who would not give his name told The Associated Press that al-Bashir left at 3 p.m. July 15, less than 24 hours after he arrived and in the middle of a two-day summit.

He denied that al-Bashir’s hasty departure was related to demands for his arrest. Human rights lawyers filed a lawsuit July 15 to try to compel the government to detain Sudan’s president and surrender him to the International Criminal Court for trial.

Nigeria’s government says it followed an African Union instruction that its 53 member states not arrest al-Bashir.