Sudanese president to visit Algeria soon: official

August 5, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir plans to visit Algeria in the coming week, his 1st VP announced.

Algeria is not a state party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which has an outstanding arrest warrant for Bashir related to the conflict in Darfur.

No further details were given on the visit which follows one he made last month to Mauritania which is also not an ICC state party.

Sudan was accused by Algeria in the 1990’s of backing Islamists extremists during a wave of violence which hit the north African nation at the time. It came close to severing diplomatic ties on two occasions as a result.

But relations between the two countries warmed up particularly after Bashir removed the Islamist figure Hassan al-Turabi from the parliament speakership following a bitter power struggle.

There were reports in the past few years that Sudan has sought financial assistance from Algeria to weather the economic crisis resulting from the secession of South Sudan in 2011.

(ST)