South African soldiers 1400 of them “held hostage” in Darfur until president Omar al-Bashir was allowed to travel back to Khartoum

Military bases housing South African peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region were “surrounded” by Sudanese troops until President Omar al-Bashir returned from South Africa

President Bashir had to cut short his visit to the African Union summit because of the possibility that he could have been arrested in compliance with an International Criminal Court warrant.

The Sudanese army withdrew only once Bashir, who was in South Africa for an African Union (AU) summit, left Johannesburg pre-empting a Pretoria high court ruling ordering his arrest.

One South African soldier was quoted as saying: “We were so scared – we were surrounded by soldiers. We handed out extra ammunition to all our troops in case they needed it.”

The Sudanese troops reportedly surrounded military bases in Kutum, Mellit and Malha. South African soldiers were placed in a state of combat readiness, according to another soldier.

“We would have had to surrender to save our lives, because you can’t fight a country’s army with a poorly equipped battalion,” said a third soldier.

Pikkie Greef, national secretary of the South African National Defense Union, said that the incident was confirmed by several sources. “The Sudanese army only withdrew from their position once al-Bashir left South Africa. This would boil down to blackmail by threatening someone with war”.

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