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| Africa Horn |
| Children held over Khartoum attack in good health: U.N. |
| 2008-06-02 |
| Some 89 children detained by Sudan on suspicion of taking part in a rebel assault on the capital Khartoum appear to be in good health and have not been mistreated, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Sunday. UNICEF said that it was able to visit the children, all boys ranging in age from 10 to 17, on Saturday at a detention centre where they are being held about 100 km (62 miles) north of Khartoum. "They appear to be in good health and physical condition, and there is no evidence of maltreatment," UNICEF spokesman Edward Cawardine said. "We were satisfied that the children are being treated in an appropriate way." The children were detained in the aftermath of a May 10 assault on the capital that marked the first time in decades of civil war that rebels from Sudan's peripheries brought fighting to Khartoum's doorstep. Rebel forces from Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) crossed hundreds of kilometers of desert and scrubland for a strike that was only halted at the bridge leading to central Khartoum, army headquarters and the presidential palace. Hundreds of people were arrested after the attack, including the 89 children who the government said JEM had used as soldiers. JEM denied that. Southern Sudanese leaders, rights activists and political groups have accused of Khartoum making "arbitrary" arrests and torturing suspects since the attack, which Sudan denies. |
| Posted by:Fred |