Sudan’s al-Bashir travels to Kigali for AU trade summit
March 20, 2018 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir Tuesday arrived in the Rwandan capital, Kigali to participate in the AU Extraordinary Summit on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) from 20 to 21 March.
The AfCFTA is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063 and aims to deepen the integration process, by allowing Africans to trade and move freely across the continent.
The Kigali Extraordinary Summit was agreed to during the ordinary session of the Assembly of the Union held in Addis Ababa in late January 2018.
The Sudanese delegation includes the State Presidential Minister Fadl Abdallah, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, Minister Commerce Minister Hatim al-Sir Ali and Director General of the President Office Hatim Hassan Bakhit.
Al-Bashir is under two International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants since 2008 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur.
The Sudanese president visited several African states members of the ICC but he was not arrested. However, the issue generated a large literature in the international law on al-Bashir’s immunity.
Rwanda is not a state party to the tribunal of war crimes but has the obligation as a member of the United Nations to cooperate with the court. However, like many other African capitals, Kigali is critical to ICC and to its focus on Africa.
(ST)