The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the Defence Minister of Sudan for crimes alleged to have been committed in Darfur.

The Defence Minister, Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, is alleged to be responsible for 20 counts of war crimes and 21 counts of crimes against humanity. At the time, Mr Hussein was Interior Minister and the Sudanese government’s representative in Darfur.

The ICC said in a statement that Mr Hussein should be prosecuted for war crimes such as persecution and torture and war crimes including murder and rape.

"The plan of the counter-insurgency campaign was allegedly formulated at the highest levels of the government of the Republic of the Sudan and had allegedly as a core component an unlawful attack on that part of the civilian population perceived by the government as being close to the rebel groups," the statement said.

The warrant was requested by chief prosecutor Luis-Moreno Ocampo in December last year, but was dismissed at the time by a senior Sudanese official as ‘ridiculous’.

The ICC had already indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

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