Rebels claim government forced to stop work at six key oil wells

The Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) said in a statement that an upsurge of fighting has forced the Sudan government to stop work at six key oil wells in the southwest of the country. Fighting in the Upper Nile region resulted in the government ordering work "to stop at six oil wells in the Hegleig region", said the statement, claiming 600 government troops had been killed.

The statement said the government army had decided to halt operations at the wells "because it no longer had sufficient manpower to ensure security". The rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) says it regards the oil facilities and pipeline a "legitimate target" because it claims the government uses the revenue to finance the civil war, estimated at some US $1 million a day reports the economic newswire Bridge Information
Systems. Samson Kwaje, spokesman for SPLA in Nairobi said the SPLA would "intensify military activities around the oil fields...to stop the exploitation and utilization of this valuable resource while the war is still on", reports AP.

Government army spokesman Mohamed Osamn Yassin denied the SPLA had launched attacks in the area and told reporters that there was "no presence of the rebel forces that jeopardizes the petroleum operations in those areas".