Army denies SPLA claim on oilfield attack

The Sudanese government on Wednesday denied the claim of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on Tuesday that it had successfully attacked oil installations at Heglig (Hajlij) in Unity (Wahdah) State, central Sudan. “The oilfields were not attacked, and no oil installations were destroyed in Heglig,” AFP quoted armed forces spokesman Lt-Gen Muhammad Bashir Sulayman as saying. Sulayman said the oilfields were “totally secure” and that the airport at Heglig was operating “as usual”. The Canadian oil company, Talisman Energy, also denied SPLA claims that rebel forces had damaged oil installations in Heglig. “There was a failed attempt by a small militia group to attack the Heglig area on [Monday] 5 August. There were no injuries to staff or security personnel, and no damage to production facilities,” AFP quoted a Talisman spokesman as saying. Production at Heglig had been briefly suspended as a “routine planned response”, but the facility was now operating normally, the company said. Talisman has been severely criticised by human rights groups for its involvement in Sudan, as they say Khartoum is using oil revenues to finance the country’s 18-year civil war. The SPLA on Tuesday claimed to have attacked the Hajlij oilfields at the weekend, damaging installations and inflicting “heavy casualties”. SPLA spokesman Yasir Arman told AFP in Cairo that a special unit of the SPLA had attacked Hajlij at dawn on 5 August, inflicting both material damage and human losses. “The SPLA would like to make it clear that such operations, and more intensive operations, will continue in the oilfields,” Arman said. The rebel movement, which accuses Khartoum of using oil revenues to finance the war in the south, warned in June that foreign oil companies operating in Sudan were “mercenaries working for the [northern] Islamist regime” and legitimate targets for attack.