Sudanese security service arrest Darfuri activist in Khartoum

September 4, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese security service arrested a Darfuri human rights activist in the capital Khartoum incommunicado and without charge or trial since a week, a rights group said.

In a statement released from Khartoum, the Sudanese Human Rights Activists Forum (SHAF) said Security service arrested on August 30, Abdel-Majeed Saleh Abakr Haroum, Darfuri campaigner and hold him in custody without charge.

Haroun, who is a leading member of Darfur Democratic Forum, “was on his way to meet with Darfuri girls that had been raped in the beginning of 2008 to follow up their cases.”

SHAF condemned the arrest and expressed great concern and fear for the health and life of Abdel-Mageed saying security apparatus exercise torture and cruel treatment against detainees from Darfur activists especially after the rebel attack on the Sudanese capital on May 10, 2008.

Rights groups said rape and other forms of sexual violence in Darfur are being used as a weapon of war in order to humiliate, punish, control, inflict fear and displace women and their communities.

U.N. workers say they registered 2,500 rapes in Darfur in 2006, but believe far more went unreported. The real figure is probably thousands a month, said a U.N. official in 2007.

However, the Sudanese authorities consider the issue as highly sensitive and dismiss it.

UN experts say 300,000 have died and 2.7 million been driven from their homes since rebels took up arms against Sudan’s government in 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the region’s development. But Khartoum says 10,000 have died.

(ST)