Muhyadin Ahmed Roble, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
A France-Africa summit which was to be held in Egypt in February has been cancelled after Paris rejected Cairo's decision to invite Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who faces an international arrest warrant. This comes after presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt met in Paris.
French Officials said on Tuesday that the summit would now be held in France in May.
The international Criminal Court issued a warrant for Bashir’s arrest in March and accused him of war crimes in the western Sudan region of Darfur. Bashir denies the charges. France is a state party to the ICC which ordered to arrest Bashir.
Bashir has challenged the ICC and had travelled to several countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Egypt. But Egypt said it will not host a France-Africa summit if Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir would not participate.
ICC accuses Bashir of running a campaign of rape, murder and other crimes against humanity in Darfur. Sudan government has been fighting rebels in the region since 2003.
Earlier this month, Mr Bashir cancelled his participation of an Islamic summit in Istanbul after Turkey, which is looking for EU membership, came under pressure from Brussels to arrest him.
The U.N. says the ongoing conflicts in Darfur has killed some 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million other. Sudan said only 10,000 people dead.
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