South Sudan’s army will take primary security control of the Heglig oil field under a new tripartite agreement with Sudan’s army and the RSF paramilitary
JUBA: South Sudan announced a tripartite agreement on Thursday granting its army primary security responsibility for the strategic Heglig oil field.
The deal was reached with Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which seized the border area earlier this week.
Information Minister Ateny Wek Ateny said the agreement aims to secure the facility “amid rising tension”.
The RSF had hailed its capture of Heglig, located in Sudan’s Kordofan region, as “a turning point for the liberation of the entire country, given its economic importance”.
South Sudan later clarified that Sudanese army troops in the area had surrendered to its forces, not fled.
Minister Ateny confirmed that 1,650 non-commissioned officers and 60 officers who surrendered are safe and being arranged for repatriation.
He said production at the oil field is “still ongoing” with no reports of “major damage that could have halted the production”.
The facility houses the main processing plant for South Sudanese oil exports.
Ateny credited President Salva Kiir, who urged both warring parties to cease fighting around the critical site.
“Both parties may have the power to destroy the oil field, but they do not have the power to stop the oil field if it inflames,” the minister said.
South Sudan retained most of Sudan’s oil reserves after gaining independence in 2011 but has faced persistent instability and poverty.
The world’s youngest country is now hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the Sudanese civil war.
Neither the RSF nor the Sudanese military were immediately available for comment on the new security arrangement. – AFP
