On 14 July 2008 the International Criminal Court (ICC) called for an arrest warrant to be issued for President Omar al-Bashir and other Sudanese officials for crimes against humanity. There have been protests against the ICC in Sudan in the days leading up to 14 July. Thousands of protesters demonstrated close to the Cabinet office where emergency talks were being held on 13 July in anticipation of the issuance of the arrest warrant. Traffic was disrupted as protesters associated with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) and the NCP’s Sudanese Student Union marched through the streets.

In anticipation of the ICC’s issuance of the warrant, the United Nations raised the security level for staff members working in the Darfur region on 12 July and had previously ordered the departure of dependent family members. According to a spokesman, the security level is at phase four, which means that “all internationally recruited staff who are not directly concerned with emergency or humanitarian relief operations or security matters are relocated.”