ICC Note: Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir tells the BBC that he plans to step down at the end of his term in 2020. Observers remain skeptical about this promise, citing that he has said this before. Bashir is one of Africa’s worst persecutors of the Church. Sudan’s intelligence officials regularly round up pastors for questioning, suspecting them of espionage, and they hold religious prisoners incommunicado and without charge. The most infamous example of this last year was the trial of pastors Peter and Michael, who the Sudanese state charged with espionage and crimes against the state. The pastors were released in August after a massive global awareness campaign cried about the injustice in the case.
4/8/16 Sudan (BBC) – Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has told the BBC he will step down in 2020, when his current mandate ends.
Mr Bashir also denied allegations of abuses perpetrated by the Sudanese forces in renewed violence against black African villages who took up arms in the country’s western Darfur region.
The president has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on counts of genocide and war crimes.
Mr Bashir has been in power since 1989. He won elections in April last year.
He told the BBC’s Thomas Fessy that his job was “exhausting” and his current term would be his last.
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