Sudan expels Kenyan ambassador

In an attempt to ease diplomatic tension between Kenya and Sudan, the Kenyan government is looking to appeal a ruling by the country’s high court after it ordered the arrest of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes.

The plan comes a day after Sudan gave Kenya’s ambassador 72 hours to leave the country and pulled the Sudanese ambassador to Kenya back to Khartoum. The expulsion was a direct reaction to the Kenyan High Court’s ruling, according to CNN.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in relation to genocide crimes in Darfur.

Because Kenya is a signatory to the treaty that mandated the ICC, it is obliged to arrest Bashir if he should ever travel into the country. However, Kenya defied the warrant in August when the Sudanese head of state traveled to Kenya for a ceremony enacting its new constitution.

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Kenya, like most African countries, complies with the African Union’s stance to not enforce the arrest, BBC reported.

Moses Wetangula, the Kenyan foreign affairs minister, said on Tuesday the government “expresses its deep concern at the very unhelpful High Court ruling,” according to Reuters.

“It is important that the country’s national interests, as well as the wider interests of the region that we live in, are taken into account in matters of this nature,” he said in a statement. He added that the Kenyan government would review the ruling for a future appeal.