Army Pulls Back from Sudan’s Largest Oilfield to Avert Damage

The terrorist Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia announced on Monday that it had seized control of the strategic Heglig oilfield in South Kordofan State. Reuters quoted government sources as saying that oilfield workers and government troops had withdrawn from the area to avoid damage to vital installations.

Heglig lies along Sudan’s southern border and hosts the main processing facility for South Sudan’s crude oil, which represents a major source of revenue for the South Sudanese government.

The crude is transported through the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Corporation (GNPOC) pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea for export, making Heglig crucial both for Sudan’s foreign-currency earnings and for landlocked South Sudan, which relies almost entirely on pipelines crossing Sudan.

According to field information, RSF’s takeover of the town effectively means that the Sudanese Army’s 90th Brigade stationed in the Heglig oil region near South Sudan had been the army’s only force confronting RSF in the state.

Government sources told Reuters that government troops and workers at the Heglig oilfield withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid clashes that could have caused serious damage to the oil facilities. A worker at the Heglig oilfield also told the agency that both the army and the staff had retreated into South Sudan.