ABUJA // The president of Sudan, Omar Al Bashir, has left Nigeria, where his presence at a one-day African Union HIV/Aids summit defied calls from the International Criminal Court for his arrest on charges of genocide and war crimes, officials said yesterday.
His press secretary and Nigerian hosts both denied reports in the local media that he had left early because of fears that he would be arrested.
Monday's summit lasted one day and Ethiopia's prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, was the only African leader who stayed on until yesterday, an official said.
"President Bashir returned normally to Khartoum after participating in the summit in Abuja to resume his work in Khartoum," said his secretary, Emad Said.
Mr Al Bashir, who is accused of masterminding genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region in which about 200,000 people were killed, arrived in Nigeria on Sunday, to the chagrin of human-rights campaigners.
Human Rights Watch and the British government both expressed dismay at the decision to let him in, and a local activist group filed a court petition demanding his arrest, in line with Nigeria's obligations under the ICC treaty.
Sudan's foreign ministry reacted angrily to negative comments from Britain's Africa minister, Mark Simmonds.
The ministry suggested Britain was being hypocritical because of its participation in the Iraq war.
"Britain participated in the Iraq invasion after it had manipulated domestic and international opinion with reasons it knew were lies. Iraq, our friend, still suffers from the destruction," Ali Karti said.
The ICC's pretrial chamber said yesterday that it had asked Nigeria to arrest Mr Al Bashir and hand him to the ICC the day before.
The African Union voted in 2009 not to cooperate with the ICC indictments against Mr Al Bashir. Nigeria's presidency says its decision to allow him in was in keeping with that decision.
African enthusiasm for the court has waned over the years, partly owing to a perception that prosecutors disproportionately target African leaders, a charge the ICC denies.
