\n Sudan's counter-insurgency forces have arrested a powerful militia chief from Darfur accused by the United Nations of human rights abuses in the war-torn region, officials said on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrested Musa Hilal, a former aide to President Omar al-Bashir, near his home town of Mustariaha in the state of North Darfur, State Minister of Defence Lieutenant General Ali Mohamed Salem told parliament.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mohamed Salem said Hilal's son Habeeb was also detained. Both were detained on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They were arrested after clashes in the area but the security situation there is now stable,\" Mohamed Salem said in a statement carried by the official SUNA news agency.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Sunday, fierce fighting erupted between fighters loyal to Hilal and an RSF unit near Mustariaha, in which the RSF said it lost 10 members including a commander.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mustariaha is a bastion of Hilal, whose fighters from the Arab Mahamid tribe have regularly clashed with RSF troops in Darfur in recent months.\n<\/p>\n
\n RSF told AFP that Hilal had been arrested with several of his fighters and three sons, and that they were all brought to Khartoum on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Hilal has been handed over to military intelligence for questioning,\" RSF spokesman Abdulrahman al-Jaali told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Hilal was a fugitive and he should face the law.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n RSF chief Mohamed Hamiditi said in a separate statement to SUNA that his troops confiscated \"sophisticated communications equipment\" from Hilal's fighters.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"A foreign national is among those arrested, which confirms the participation of foreign parties in destabilising the security in Darfur,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The foreigner is an Algerian and he was arrested at Hilal's house,\" RSF spokesman Jaali said later Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sunday's fighting erupted when an RSF unit was ambushed as it oversaw a weapons hand-in near Mustariaha under a disarmament programme launched by the government across Darfur after it announced the conflict in the region had ended early this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Darfur, a region the size of France, has been awash with weapons since 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Bashir's Arab-dominated government, accusing it of economic and political discrimination.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Refusing to disarm -\n<\/p>\n
\n The weapons are held by tribal militias, including some backed by government forces, and authorities now want them to be handed in.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Hilal and his fighters have refused to surrender their arms.\n<\/p>\n
\n During the initial years of the conflict in Darfur, Hilal and his fighters fought on the side of government forces against black African rebels in the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hilal is subject to a UN travel ban and on a list of individuals sanctioned for \"human rights atrocities\" during the early years of the conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN and rights groups have accused him of attacking villages and even displaced people's camps.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN and Washington say he played a key role in mobilising pro-government Arab militias that attacked black African rebels and villagers for allegedly backing rebel groups.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hilal denies these accusations, saying that he organised his tribesmen in order to defend their lands and property following a call by Khartoum.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2008, Hilal was appointed an adviser to Bashir, but later a rift erupted between him and the government when he accused Khartoum of ignoring his political demands.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since then, he and hundreds of his fighters have often clashed with the RSF in Darfur, threatening recent gains achieved in the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n The RSF also faces controversy over its role in crushing rebels in Darfur.\n<\/p>\n
\n The region has seen an overall fall in violence in recent years, although there are regular reports of tribal clashes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.5 million displaced since the Darfur conflict erupted in 2003, the UN says.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and war crimes related to the conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n He denies the charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sudan's counter-insurgency forces have arrested a powerful militia chief from Darfur accused by the United Nations of human rights abuses in the war-torn region, officials said on Monday. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrested Musa Hilal, a former aide to President Omar al-Bashir, near his home town of Mustariaha in the state of North Darfur, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-35478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n