A Foreign Office minister has called on Chad to arrest Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir on war crimes, genocide crimes against humanity charges during his expected visit to the country.
Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds said it would be the third time Chad did not heed the international Criminal Court warrant for al-Bashir, if he was not arrested. Al-Bashir is expected to attend the Community of Sahel-Saharan (CEN-SAD) summit.
The arrest warrant was issued in 2009 for his government's crimes in Darfur, with death tolls of between 200,000 to 400,000 people killed in ethnic cleansing of the non-Arab population by the Janjaweed militia.
In a statement, the minister said: "If President al-Bashir is not arrested, this will be the third time the Government of Chad has failed to implement warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
"Chad has committed itself to full cooperation with the ICC, and I reiterate the importance that the British Government places on such commitments.
"The UK expects Chad to stand by its obligations and will be disappointed if it does not do so.
"We expect all states party to the ICC to comply with their obligations and, indeed, all states should cooperate with ICC investigations as set out in relevant UN Security Council resolutions."