Islamist opposition Hassan al-Turabi & four other top members of his party have been arrested on Monday after an attack on Khartoum by Darfur rebels. Awad Babiker, Mr Turabi’s private secretary from Sudan said, “Security forces came early this morning & arrested Turabi”. Khalil Ibrahim & other leaders of the Darfur rebel group, the Justice & Equality Movement (JEM), which attacked a suburb of Khartoum on Saturday, were supporters of Mr Turabi in the past but Mr Turabi denies any support for JEM.

The attack was the first time fighting had reached the capital in decades of conflict between the traditionally Arab-dominated central government of Africa’s biggest country & rebels from peripheral regions. Mr. Turabi was President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s ideologue until they split in a bitter power struggle in 1999-2000. Since then Mr Turabi has been in & out of jail but was released along with all other political prisoners after a north-south peace deal in 2005.