Sudan arrests 80 Darfur 'child rebels'

Sudan says that 80 children, some as young as 11 and press-ganged into a Darfur rebel group, had been arrested in a security crackdown after an unprecedented attack on Khartoum.

Hassabo Mohamed Abdelrahman, commissioner general of the government Humanitarian Aid Commission, said children aged 11 to 17, were detained in the capital's twin city of Omdurman wearing uniforms and carrying guns.

"Up to now, the number that we have is 80 but we suspect there may be more," Abdelrahman told a news conference nearly a week after Darfur rebels carried out on attack on Omdurman that left more than 220 people dead.

He said most of them are Sudanese and accused the Justice and Equality Movement of abducting them from pastoral and refugee areas in the vast western region of Darfur.

The minors are being held separately in a social rehabilitation centre, where all their needs will be looked after, Abdelrahman said.

There was no independent confirmation of the numbers arrested.

"We want the international community to put pressure on the rebel groups to release the child soldiers" the have, Amira el-Fadil, secretary general of the national council for child welfare, told AFP after the news conference.

The UN children's fund and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they had not yet seen the minors but confirmed that the government had consulted them on how they should be treated.

"We have no confirmation of numbers, but we were aware that children were probably involved," Edward Carwardine, UNICEF spokesman, told AFP.

"We are welcoming the fact that those minors are going to be taken care of ... and we are happy to help as an advisory body on issues related to their detention," said ICRC spokesman Saleh Dabbakih.