 In March 2003 the Sudanese government closed two of the organisation's offices and froze its bank accounts.On 5 March 2009, the same day that President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court, the Sudanese government ordered the closure of SUDO, and its offices were taken over by state security forces.The "New York Times" reported that the letter closing the offices "came from the Humanitarian Affairs Commission, which is run by Ahmed Haroun, one of the people facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for mass slaughter in Darfur."