Drone attack on southern oilfield held by Sudan's RSF kills dozens

RSF fighters, South Sudanese soldiers and local tribal chiefs among those believed to have been killed

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces seized a key oilfield from the army this week. Reuters

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces said a drone operated by the army, its enemy in the country's civil war, attacked the nation's largest oilfield in South Kordofan in a strike that killed dozens and caused material damage.

Tuesday evening's attack on the Heglig oilfield came a day after the RSF seized the complex from the army, whose troops fled the site and crossed into neighbouring South Sudan.

Troops from South Sudan have been at Heglig to help protect the site - crucial for the south's economy - after its capture by the RSF.

“The attack resulted in the killing and injury of dozens of engineers and workers at the field, several leaders of the local administration as well as many soldiers from the security and protection force of the Republic of South Sudan and the Rapid Support Forces; in addition to the destruction of a number of vital facilities,” the RSF said.

The RSF said the attack was carried out by a drone. The army had no immediate comment on the RSF statement.

The site of the Heglig oilfield is also home to Sudan’s largest oil processing plant, which carries oil from South Sudan to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

South Sudan relies entirely on Sudanese pipelines to export its oil and has seen its production repeatedly disrupted by the conflict, worsening its economic crisis.

Sudan's civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions more facing displacement and hunger. Reuters

Sudanese soldiers and oil workers began evacuating Heglig on Monday and the RSF took control of the site without resistance, according to military officials quoted by the Associated Press.

By Tuesday, about 3,900 Sudanese soldiers had surrendered their weapons to South Sudanese troops after crossing the border into the south's Rubkona County, according to Unity State’s information ministry.

Video clips aired by South Sudan’s state broadcaster showed tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery among the weapons handed over.

Thousands of civilians from Sudan have meanwhile started crossing the border into South Sudan on Sunday and were still arriving on Wednesday, the South Sudan government said.

South Sudan insists it remains neutral in the conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF despite accusations that it was siding with the paramilitary.

Heglig's capture was the latest in a string of RSF territorial gains, including the October fall of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the Sudanese army's last stronghold in Darfur. Last week, the RSF captured the Kordofan city of Babanousa.

The war, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced at least 12 million and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with about 25 million people – half the population – facing hunger.

The cause of the war is rooted in a power struggle between army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and RSF commander General Mohamed Dagalo.

Refugees from El Fasher, the scene of some of the war's most brutal fighting, at a camp in Chad. Reuters

Plane crash

Separately, a Sudanese military aircraft crashed while attempting to land in the east of the country, killing all crew members on board.

The Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane experienced technical failure while attempting to land Tuesday in the Osman Digna Air Base in Port Sudan, the wartime capital of the military-backed government, according to military officials.

Among the dead was military pilot Omran Mirghani, according to his uncle, prominent Sudanese analyst and publisher Osman Al Mirghany, who mourned his nephew's death on social media.

The military did not immediately comment on the crash.

Plane crashes are not uncommon in Sudan, which has a poor aviation safety record. In February, at least 46 people, including women and children, were killed when a military aircraft crashed in a densely populated area in Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum.

In Geneva on Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said war crimes and “potentially” crimes against humanity were committed in the city of El Fasher, which the RSF seized in late October.

“We are talking about very serious atrocity crimes … war crimes for sure (and) potentially also crimes against humanity,” he told journalists. “We have an extremely serious situation.”

Mr Turk warned atrocities also could happen in the central region of Kordofan where the RSF has intensified its attacks in recent months. The paramilitaries are now poised to attack Al Obeid, a key North Kordofan city with a population in excess of 500,000.

“We cannot allow a repeat of this absolutely horrific situation in Kordofan,” said Mr Turk.

Al Shafie Ahmed reported from Kampala, Uganda.