I see that the foreign secretary in out in Sudan

David Miliband notes that

The newspapers outside Sudan are full of stories about the International Criminal Court and war crimes in Darfur. The UK is a strong supporter of the International Court and encourages all to engage with it. I will have more to say if there are developments in the week.

Well today's announcement that the Sudanese president Al-Bashir has been accused of war crimes over Darfur has raised issues for the vast aid community over there.

As the Washington Post reports

The action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur

It appears that the weekend's threats of violence against the Western aid agencies in the country are leading to thee start of evacuations even though as Simon Tidsall points out

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, telephoned Bashir at the weekend to emphasise that the ICC took its decisions independently of the UN, its aid agencies and Unamid, the UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur