A source in Sudan’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum stated that Sudan has notified the government of South Sudan that Sudanese authorities have issued instructions to oil companies to begin shutting down the pipeline transporting crude oil from South Sudan to export terminals in Port Sudan, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Sudan
Sudan’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mohieddien Naiem, attributed the move in a message to his South Sudanese counterpart to drone attacks carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on oil facilities in Sudan. The letter explained that on May 9, a drone attacked a pumping station in the Al-Hudi area east of Atbara in River Nile State, causing severe damage, and the previous day, a drone targeted a fuel depot in White Nile State.
The letter also noted that attacks on power stations have caused outages at marine terminals, affecting their ability to simultaneously load crude oil, while targeting depots threatens a severe shortage of fuel supplies essential for transport systems.
Earlier today, Sudan’s civil defense announced it had “completely” contained fires that broke out at the main oil depots and other sites in Port Sudan, which has served as the government’s headquarters for nearly two years. Civil defense director Othman Atta stated in a release, “We have completely controlled all fires at the strategic depots and various sites in Port Sudan under extremely complex conditions and with large petroleum stocks,” through “a well-coordinated action plan and tremendous efforts.”
Sudanese authorities had previously accused the RSF of launching a drone attack that ignited the main fuel depot in the city on the Red Sea coast, warning at the time of a “potential disaster” in the area due to the spread of fires in “fuel-filled depots.”
Port Sudan has largely remained untouched by the violence that has gripped Sudan since mid-April 2023, when war broke out between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
In addition to serving as the government’s temporary headquarters, international organizations, diplomatic missions, and hundreds of thousands of displaced people have relocated to Port Sudan.
These attacks have disrupted vital facilities such as the main fuel depot, power station, Port Sudan’s port, and its international civilian airport, which the United Nations describes as the “lifeline for humanitarian operations”
