Dead bodies and destroyed tanks lay in Sudan’s southern oil center of Heglig yesterday, after government forces and South Sudanese troops clashed along the border, sparking international alarm. Smoke still rose from a damaged residence at the battle scene.
An Agence France-Presse reporter observed the damage, while accompanying Sudanese Oil Minister Awad Ahmad al-Jaz, who landed in the nearby town of Heglig at 9:15am, accompanies by Ahmad Harun, governor of surrounding South Kordofan State.
The correspondent saw three bodies and two tanks, but the tanks carried no visible identifying markings.
Numerous oil wells surround the town.
“Heglig and all around it is completely secure,” Heglig area commander Bashir Meki told the delegation.
Heglig town is about 15km from the disputed frontier’s closest point.
AIRSTRIKES
South Sudan said its forces had taken the area on Monday, when they pushed back Khartoum’s troops, which had moved over the frontier into Unity State following airstrikes.
A Sudanese aircraft dropped two more bombs in an oil region of the South’s Unity State on Tuesday, but there was no damage, said Gideon Gatpan, the state’s information minister.
Both Heglig and the area bombed on Tuesday are run by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Com, a consortium led by China’s state oil giant, China National Petroleum Corp (中國石油天然氣).
Although both countries claim parts of the Heglig area, an analyst said it “is firmly in north Sudan.”
Analysts said there are elements in Khartoum, as well as the South, opposed to recent moves toward warmer bilateral relations between the two countries and suggested the latest flare-up is an effort to sabotage a rapprochement.
Border tensions have mounted since South Sudan split from Sudan in July last year after an overwhelming vote for secession that followed Africa’s longest war.
Earlier this month, after months of failed negotiations, a dispute over oil fees and mutual accusations of backing rebels on each other’s territory, South Sudan’s chief negotiator, Pagan Amum, said relations had improved.
CANCELED MEETING
Amum and a South Sudanese delegation visited Khartoum last week to invite their “brother” Bashir to an April 3 summit in the southern capital, Juba, and said he had accepted.
However, after Monday’s fighting Khartoum said it had suspended the meeting.
Al-Jaz was to return last night to Khartoum.
Sudan’s defense and interior ministers were due to address a parliamentary committee yesterday morning discussing the recent incidents, official media reported.
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