Hollywood actor George Clooney was released hours after being arrested and handcuffed Friday in a human rights protest outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.
The incident took place just a day after the actor and political activist had met with US President Barack Obama to urge action to end the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
"What we've been trying to achieve today is to bring attention to an ongoing emergency once," he said after his release from jail. "We've got a six week timetable before the rainy season starts and a lot of people die. One of those ways was to get arrested."
Clooney told reporters that it was his first arrest, "and let's hope it's my last."
Clooney is trying to focus attention on the estimated half million people who face starvation in the Nuba Mountains region on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, due to the Sudanese government's alleged blockage of humanitarian aid.
Television footage earlier Friday showed Clooney being led away from the protest site in handcuffs along with his father, 78-year-old journalist Nick Clooney, Martin Luther King III, and several members of Congress.
Speaking to hundreds of protesters as he was being led away, Clooney called on "the government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them, and stop starving them."
