Sudan president charged with genocide in Darfur

The war in Darfur began in 2003 as a crackdown on anti-government rebels who complained their arid region was neglected by Khartoum. The U.N. estimates 300,000 people have died, directly from attacks or indirectly through starvation.

Moreno-Ocampo said Sudan's forces and their janjaweed militia proxies now deliberately target civilians in villages and camps rather than the rebels, sometimes even bypassing nearby rebel encampments.

They destroy villages, rape women and girls and leave the homeless to starve in the desert or suffer malnutrition in camps, he alleged.

"These 2.5 million people are in camps. They (al-Bashir's forces) don't need gas chambers because the desert will kill them," Moreno-Ocampo told a news conference, drawing comparison's with the Nazi Holocaust.

One witness cited by prosecutors said rape was woven into the fabric of life in Darfur.

"Maybe around 20 men rape one woman. These things are normal for us here in Darfur," said the statement from the unidentified witness cited by Moreno-Ocampo.