Khartoum backs Kenyan moves to import oil

The government of Sudan on Wednesday issued a press statement in which it defended the 10 July announcement by Kenya that the country's oil companies had been given official permission to import oil from Sudan at zero tariff. Sudan said that, in allowing the importation of goods without tariff, Kenya was merely fulfilling its duty under the terms of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, of which it was a founding member. It also said it was ready to reach agreement on fair sharing of Sudanese wealth, including oil revenues.

The newly-appointed Kenyan energy minister, Raila Odinga, has come under pressure from the Kenyan media, religious organisations and rights groups to rescind the decision to import oil from Sudan because of Khartoum's alleged use of oil resources to fund military operations against southern Sudanese in the continuing civil war. Rights groups have also alleged that Sudanese government troops and pro-government militias were conducting rights abuses and depopulating oil concession areas to make way for oil production. Odinga hoped that the importation of Sudanese oil would bring down Kenyan fuel prices and provide a much-needed boon to the country's economy.

In its press statement on Wednesday, Sudan said that oil revenues were used for the welfare of all Sudanese people throughout the country, and that part of the revenues had been allocated to southern states. The government had also proposed "a formula that aims at making oil part of the solution rather than being part of the problem" to the regional Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), the statement said. IGAD is trying to broker a peace deal between Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The Sudanese government formula, which would involve all IGAD countries, "was not put in place because of the SPLM/A refusal of the proposed ceasefire," the statement added. The SPLM/A insists that oil production should be halted until there is a comprehensive political settlement in Sudan, and that a ceasefire is only possible within the terms of such a settlement.