Darfur rebels said they attacked a Chinese-run oil field in Sudan on Tuesday and vowed to launch more assaults on other installations. The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it defeated 1,200 government soldiers who were guarding the site in Sudan's energy-rich Kordofan region, neighbouring Darfur.
No one was immediately available for comment from Sudan's armed forces. A spokesman from Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Mining said he had not received reports on the attack but would look into it. Khartoum is very sensitive about reports that might damage its oil industry.
JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim told Reuters the attack was part of an ongoing campaign to force Chinese oil companies to leave the country. The insurgent group accuses Beijing of arming Khartoum and financing the government through oil revenues.
An estimated 200,000 people have died of disease, hunger or as a result of violence in the Darfur conflict between the government and rebels, who took up arms in 2003 saying Khartoum discriminated against non-Arab farmers and neglected the region.
JEM seized five foreign oil workers in October in an attack on Kordofan's Defra oil field, run by a consortium led by China's CNPC. JEM warned foreign oil companies to leave at the time, saying they would be the target of future attacks.
"My army attacked the oil field in Kordofan at 6 am (0300 GMT)," said Ibrahim. "We defeated 1,200 Sudan Army soldiers who were protecting the field. We now have control of the field. We want all Chinese companies to leave. They have been warned many times. They should not be there."
Ibrahim said a number of Sudan Army troops had died in the hour-long attack, along with one of his own senior commanders. Oil workers fled the site during the attack, he said, adding the rebels had taken no prisoners.
"This is still going on," said Ibrahim. "We will be launching more attacks in the next three days maybe within hours, maybe within days." He added his fighters had seized a large amount of government arms and artillery. Ibrahim said Tuesday's attack was on an oil installation in Kordofan's Heglig area, run by the Great Wall Oil Company of China. An oil analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no such operator working in Sudan but that it could be the name of a sub-contractor.
The attack was condemned by the UN Special Envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson, who returned from a tour of the war-torn western region on Monday. "I still have to have these reports confirmed but it is certainly a very negative development," Eliasson told reporters. "Any plans to spread the conflict to other areas and above all to issue threats against civilians or peacekeepers is unacceptable. I regret very much any move from anybody in these sensitive times to choose military methods." JEM last month demanded China pull a unit of army engineer peacekeepers out of Darfur, saying it would refuse to give them access to its territory.
The October attack on the Defra oil field sparked alarm in Beijing which has made significant investments in Sudan's oil industry. A day after the attack, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman urged Sudan to protect Chinese staff on oil installations.
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