SPLA claims attack on Hajlij oilfields

The rebel Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) on Tuesday claimed to have attacked the Hajlij oilfields in Unity (Wahdah) State, central Sudan, at the weekend, damaging installations and inflicting “heavy casualties”, AFP reported. 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 agency reported. “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, has been fighting successive Muslim and Arab dominated governments in Khartoum for the past 18 years.