Church speaks out against oil trade

The Catholic church in Kenya has called on the recently appointed energy minister, Raila Odinga, to rescind the decision to import oil from Sudan, the 'East African Standard' reported on Tuesday. The Rev Fr Odhiambo Okola was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the Sudanese government was using oil revenues to buy sophisticated military hardware which it then used in its war against the people of southern Sudan. The church claimed that Sudanese government forces and militia had destroyed harvests, looted livestock, and burned houses in order to extract oil from some areas, the newspaper said.

Speaking at a press conference in Nairobi, Okola - who is Kenyan, but works in Sudan - was quoted as saying that the church called on "peace-loving people, the international community and the neighbouring countries, including Kenya, to withdraw and stop any purchase of oil from the Khartoum government".

Odinga told a press conference on 10 July that oil companies had been given official permission to import oil from Sudan at zero tariff, Kenyan TV reported. Kenya and Sudan are among a number of countries that have signed a Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) protocol that allows the zero-rating of imports from within the region.

Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mining, Awad Ahmad al-Jaz, said that the country's oil production, which started at 150,000 barrels a day, had now reached 220,000 barrels a day, the Sudanese newspaper 'Al-Ra'y al'Amm' reported on Tuesday. At a price per barrel in the region of US $25, that delivers oil revenues in the region of $5.5 million per day, or over $900 million per year. According to the British-based NGO Christian Aid, exports of the Sudan's estimated reserves of two million barrels are paying for the build-up of a homegrown arms industry as well as paying for more arms imports. Humanitarian sources told IRIN: "It is easy for an oil-fuelled expanding economy to begin to influence its neighbours through investment. Once again it is to be hoped that Kenyan friends will raise their concerns in an appropriate manner."