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Fighting around Sudan’s largest oil refinery sparked a sprawling fire, satellite data analyzed by The Associated Press showed on Saturday, sending thick, black smoke billowing over the country’s capital.
Forces loyal to Sudan’s army under army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan later claimed they had seized a refinery owned by the Sudanese government and the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation. with the Rebel Rapid Support Force.
International mediation efforts and pressure tactics, including US assessments that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide, have not stopped the fighting.
The Al Jaili refinery sits 60 km (40 mi) north of the capital, Khartoum. The refinery has been the target of previous attacks as the RSF has claimed control of the facility since April 2023 and its forces are guarding it. Local Sudanese media reported that the RSF also surrounded the refinery with minefields to slow any progress.
But the facility, which has the capacity to handle 100,000 barrels of oil a day, remained largely intact as of Thursday. That day, according to satellite data from NASA satellites, an attack on the refinery set the complex on fire.
Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC on Friday showed extensive areas of refinery flare-ups for the AP. Immediately after 1200 GMT. Photos shot later showed flames in flames in the sky in several places. Oil tanks at the facility were burned, covered in soot.
Thick plumes of black smoke at the site are blown south towards Khartoum by wind. Exposure to this smoke can aggravate respiratory problems and increase the risk of cancer.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Sudanese military accused the RSF of being responsible for the refinery fire.
The statement read that the RSF “deliberately set fire to the Khartoum Refinery in Al Jaili this morning in a desperate attempt to destroy the country’s infrastructure.”
“This despicable behavior shows the extent of the crimes and depravity of this militia… (and) increases our determination to pursue it everywhere until we rid every inch of their filth. ”
The RSF, for its part, alleged on Thursday night that Sudanese military aircraft had dropped “barrel bombs” on the facility, “totally destroying it.” RSF has claimed that the Sudanese military has used old commercial cargo planes to drop barrel bombs, such as the one that crashed under mysterious circumstances in October.
Neither the Sudanese army nor the RSF produced evidence to support their dual allegations. But on Saturday, multiple videos emerged of Burhan’s forces claiming to have entered the refinery compound, with heavy gunfire heard in the background.
Sudan Military Spokesman, Brig. General Nabil Abdullah also told AP that he had taken control of the refinery. The RSF did not immediately address the claim, nor did any other Sudanese forces break the month-long siege at the Signal Corps headquarters in northern Khartoum.
China, Sudan’s biggest trading partner before the war, has not acknowledged the refinery fire. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
In 1992, the Chevron Corporation moved into China’s oil industry after another civil war, targeting oil workers in violence. South Sudan broke away to become its own country in 2011, taking 75 percent of Sudan’s oil reserves.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “following the recent escalation of fighting in Sudan,” his office said in a statement Friday, specifically mentioning the oil refinery attack.
“The Secretary-General urges the parties to refrain from all actions that could have dangerous consequences for Sudan and the region, including serious economic and environmental implications,” the statement said.
Losing the refinery would have a major impact on the economies of both Sudan and South Sudan.
“The destruction of the refinery would force the Sudanese people to rely on more expensive fuel imports,” Timothy Liptrott warned in a May 2024 Small Arms Survey analysis. (Sudanese Army) has permanently damaged Sudan’s improving infrastructure, as opposed to damaging Sudan’s accumulated capital.
Sudan has been unstable since a popular uprising forced the ouster of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A short-lived transition to democracy was sparked when the RSF’s Burhan and General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo led a military coup in October. 2021.
Al-Bashir faces charges at the International Criminal Court for leading a campaign of genocide in the West Darfur region in the early 2000s, alongside Janjaweed, a precursor to the RSF. Rights groups and the United Nations say the RSF and affiliated Arab militias are once again attacking ethnic African groups in the war.
In its final days, the Biden administration also authorized Burhan’s “lethal attacks on civilians, including airstrikes against protected infrastructure, including schools, markets and hospitals.” It also said Burhan’s forces were “responsible for routine and deliberate denial of humanitarian aid, using food shortages as a war tactic.”
The RSF and the Sudanese army started fighting each other in April 2023. Their conflict has killed more than 28,000 people, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and left some families desperately trying to survive on grass as famine ravaged parts of the country. is
Other estimates suggest that the death toll in the civil war is much higher.
