Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces seized the country’s largest oil field Monday, according to paramilitary, army and industry sources, as fighting escalates in the strategic, resource-rich south.
Since ousting the army from its last Darfur stronghold in late October, the RSF has turned its attention to neighboring Kordofan.
Last week, a drone strike on a kindergarten and hospital killed 114 people, including 63 children, the World Health Organization reported.
“The liberation of the Heglig oil region marks a pivotal step in the liberation of the entire homeland, given the area’s economic significance,” the RSF said in a statement Monday.
An RSF source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the base housing the local army division also had fallen.
An engineer at the Heglig field, located in southern Kordofan, confirmed the RSF takeover, saying the facility had been shut down, production halted, and workers evacuated to South Sudan.
Army forces withdrew “to protect the oil facilities and prevent damage,” a military source told AFP.
The three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
In a statement, an RSF-led alliance pledged to “secure all oil installations” and allow engineers and workers to carry out necessary maintenance “without any obstacles,” ensuring production continuity.
Since April 2023, the army and RSF have been locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 12 million and devastated infrastructure.
The RSF’s advance in Kordofan is backed by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) faction, led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, which controls much of South Kordofan and parts of Blue Nile state.
The two groups allied earlier this year, forming a coalition based in the South Darfur capital, Nyala, which now governs the western region.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned Thursday’s “senseless” strikes on Kalogi, South Kordofan, which local authorities and the army-aligned foreign ministry blamed on the RSF and Hilu’s SPLM-N.
In a statement Monday, the SPLM-N faction said capturing the long-besieged South Kordofan towns of Kadugli and Dilling is “only a matter of time,” urging the army and allied militias to withdraw and open “corridors for citizens to leave to safe areas.”
In an interview with AFP, Doctors Without Borders president Javid Abdelmoneim called on both sides to “allow humanitarian and medical workers freedom, protection and access to the population.”
The Heglig field, Sudan’s largest, is also the main processing facility for South Sudan’s oil exports, which account for nearly all of Juba’s government revenue.
“The processing plant near the field through which South Sudanese oil passes was also shut down,” the engineer said.
The pipeline carrying oil from the southern border to Port Sudan on the Red Sea is a key source of income for impoverished Sudan, whose economy has collapsed during the war.
When Juba seceded in 2011, it took nearly all of Sudan’s oil deposits. Heglig, long disputed between the two countries, saw brief clashes in 2012.
The RSF also controls major oil fields in the west, operated since the 1990s by China before being forced to shut early in the war.
Last month, the China National Petroleum Corporation informed Sudan it would end its investments, according to a copy of the letter seen by AFP.
Former oil minister Gadein Ali Obeid called the situation a “disaster,” saying Sudan has lost its two main oil-producing regions, Heglig and Block 6, referring to the Chinese-operated site further west.
“All of Sudan’s oil production originates from both of them... Even oil from Block 6 was processed at Heglig, which used to handle between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels per day for Sudan and South Sudan,” he added.
Since losing its last foothold in western Darfur, the army has been on the defensive, trying to halt the paramilitary advance through Kordofan and back toward the capital, Khartoum.
Sudan is now effectively split in two, with the army holding the north, east and center, and the RSF, with the help of its allies, controlling the west and swathes of the south.
