President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan has become the first sitting head of state ever to be charged by the International Criminal Court with committing crimes of genocide. The charges stem from a long campaign targeting three of Sudan’s ethnic groups (Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa), during which as many as 300,000 people have died in the Darfur region since 2003. A formal arrest warrant was issued for Bashir in order to try him for crimes of targeted mass killing, rape, torture and forcible transfer. Bashir and his government claim that only 10,000 have been killed.