Sudanese aid worker arrested in South Darfur camp – IDPs

April 12, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese aid worker employed by a US relief group was arrested by an unidentified group of armed men in Kalama camp, South Darfur, on Monday.

“Seven armed men stormed the office of the International Medical Corps (IMC) inside Kalma camp and forcibly arrested Jibril Ahmed Nourein on Monday morning,” said Hussein Abu Sharati who is the spokesperson of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Darfur camps.

Abu Sharati told Sudan Tribune that Jibril resisted the seven men when they penetrated inside the office and wounded one of the attacker with a dagger he had in his office.

IMC has been in Darfur since August 2004 and runs 21 centers providing emergency and basic primary health care, nutrition, besides clean water programmes. Abu Sharti said IMC has operated in the camp since the expulsion of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) from Darfur in March 2009.

The IRC was one of many non-governmental organisations asked to leave Darfur after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In July 2010 genocide was added to the indictment after an appeal by the chief prosecutor.

Abu Sharati said the residents of the largest Darfur camp suspect the Sudanese security of arresting the aid worker because they saw seven other four-wheel drive vehicles stationed outside the camp, which moved after the arrest.

More than ten aid workers have been killed in Sudan’s western Darfur region since 2004.

According to UN agencies some 300,000 people have died and another 3 million have been displaced in the war-ravaged region of Darfur, where rebels have been fighting government forces and allied militiamen, since 2003.

(ST)