The authorities in Sudan have detained the British Broadcasting Corp.'s correspondent in the country, according to reports.
The agency said that Alfred Taban, a prominent local journalist, was arrested in Khartoum on Wednesday while attending a news conference by church leaders, the BBC said.
The church leaders were protesting against the cancellation by police of an Easter service. About 100 Christians were also arrested during clashes between security forces and protesting worshippers.
Taban was being held at army headquarters under emergency laws, which allow for 90 days' detention without charge.
The BBC described Taban as a long-standing correspondent, saying it had complete confidence in his reporting.
This is the second time Taban is arrested. The first was when he was publishing Khartoum Monitor a few years ago.
Some 100 were arrested Wednesday in clashes in Khartoum between security forces and worshippers protesting a government order to move an Easter service to a suburb, AFP had reported.
Thousands of young Christians, almost all of them from southern Sudan, had gathered in front of the All-Saints Church in downtown Khartoum and began to throw stones at passing cars to protest the government's cancellation of a service due to take place Tuesday.
Clashes had also broken out Tuesday after the government order was announced, with police injuring some protesters and detaining about 40 people, church officials said.
A visiting German evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, took a flight back home Tuesday night after the Sudan Council of Churches advised him to leave, said the agency – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
