War crimes charges for Bashir

The International Criminal Court said it issued the arrest warrant "for war crimes and crimes against humanity," but it stopped short of accusing Bashir of genocide. 

"He is suspected of being criminally responsible, as an indirect (co-)perpetrator, for intentionally directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, Sudan, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property," the court said. They called it their first ever arrest warrant issued for a sitting head of state.

The court said the alleged crimes took place during a five year counter-insurgency campaign by the Government of Sudan that began in 2003. Bashir quickly denounced the charges.

"We will act as a responsible government," he told officials in his government after the warrant was issued. But Bashir "danced and waved a cane defiantly before thousands of supporters" at a rally, the Associated Press reported. 

Bashir's government also ordered at least 10 international aid agencies to leave Darfur and cease operations. But Thierry Durand, of French NGO Doctors Without Borders, told France24 television that his organization had been wrongly accused.