Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir Wednesday said leaders of South Sudan should be brought to trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for atrocities committed during the civil war.

Speaking before student crowd in Khartoum on Monday, al-Bashir said: “there is nothing in the world like the ongoing death, destruction, displacement and identity-based killing in South Sudan and it is worth bringing the South leaders before the ICC”.

He accused the Western countries of colluding to separate South Sudan, saying they “should have taken all South Sudan leaders, not us, to the ICC”.

The ICC issued two arrest warrants against al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Darfur.

He is the first sitting head of state charged by the Hague-based court since its inception in 2002.