KHARTOUM: Sudan’s president announced a state of emergency in two states in the centre and east of the country, the official news agency said.

 President Omar Al-Bashir issued a decree to install the state of emergency in North Kordofan and Kasala for six months, SUNA said, without providing any reason.

 Kasala is on the country’s eastern border with Eritrea.

 A state of emergency is already in force in seven other conflict-ridden states.

 These include the five states that make up the region of Darfur, where government forces have been battling rebels since 2003.

 The state of emergency also applies to the two states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where government forces have been fighting insurgents since 2011.

 According to the constitution, parliament needs to approve the president’s decree within two weeks.

 Recently, Turkey “laughed off” a demand from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest Sudan’s wanted leader when he attended a summit in Istanbul, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Thursday.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on charges of genocide and war crimes, on December 13 attended a summit of Islamic nations called by Erdogan to denounce US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Erdogan told Turkish reporters in an interview that the ICC wrote a letter to Turkey saying it had information Bashir was in Istanbul for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit and he should be arrested and handed over to the court.

There was no immediate confirmation from the ICC, which is currently in recess, that it made such a demand.