George Clooney arrested at Sudanese embassy (PHOTO)
Actor George Clooney is arrested during a demonstration outside the Embassy of Sudan March 16, 2012 in Washington, DC. United to End Genocide, the Enough Campaign and Amnesty International held a rally to call on the United States and world leaders to stop the violence in South Sudan and prevent hundreds of thousands of people from starving.
Actor George Clooney and his father were arrested on Friday, along with other protesters, outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, DC, according to the Associated Press.
The protesters accused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of provoking a humanitarian crisis and blocking aid from entering the Nuba Mountains, a border region near South Sudan, said the AP.
Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia and NAACP President Ben Jealous were also among those arrested.
Clooney met with President Barack Obama on Thursday to discuss Sudan, said CNN. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee also heard Clooney's testimony earlier this week about violence in the Nuba Mountains.
More on GlobalPost: Sudan: Clooney charges war crimes committed in Nuba Mountains (PHOTOS)
The Washington Post reported that Clooney and the gathered activists, congressmen, and religious leaders spoke of Sudan's humanitarian crisis.
Moments before his arrest, Clooney said: "We are here really to ask two very simple questions. The first question is something immediate — and immediately we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world." The second was "for the government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them and stop starving them. That's all we ask," according to CNN.
Clooney and the group of protesters stepped onto the embassy's grounds and were given three warnings that they should leave or face arrest. After the third warning they lined up and were arrested on Massachusetts Avenue and taken away in handcuffs.
Clooney had just returned from a trip to Sudan two days prior and has been involved with The Enough Project, a human rights advocacy group.
More on GlobalPost: Promises, pitfalls await investors in Burma’s frontier economy
The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?