The streets of Khartoum were calm yesterday a day after Sudan became the first country to have its president indicted for genocide by a permanent international court. But the indictment risks destabilising the north African nation further or even breaking it apart.

Critics of the indictment, including the African Union and China, have warned that the move by the International Criminal Court could do more harm than good. The eventual outcome will depend on reactions in Khartoum, Darfur and in south Sudan, where a civil war - that ended in 2005 - was fought for decades.