Major fire engulfs Sudan's largest oil refinery amid clashes
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Shafaq News/ A massive fire broke out at Sudan’s largest oil refinery, Al-Jaili, amid ongoing clashes nearby, sending thick, black polluted smoke billowing over the capital, Khartoum.
The attacks near the refinery, co-owned by the Sudanese government and China’s state-run National Petroleum Corporation, represent the “latest disaster” in the war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, with both sides accusing each other of causing the fire, according to the Associated Press.
The Al-Jaili refinery, situated about 60 kilometers north of Khartoum, has previously been targeted in attacks. The RSF has claimed control of the facility since April 2023 and has been guarding it since then. Local Sudanese media reported that the RSF planted landmines around the refinery to hinder any advances.
However, the facility, with a capacity to refine 100,000 barrels of oil per day, remained mostly intact until last Thursday, when clashes in the surrounding area sparked a fire.
Satellite data from NASA, which monitors wildfires globally, showed that an attack on the oil field last Thursday sparked fires throughout the entire complex.
Notably, Sudan has faced instability since the popular uprising that led to the removal of longtime president Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A brief transition to democracy was interrupted when army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF teamed up to lead a military coup in October 2021.
The RSF and Sudan’s military engaged in conflict starting in April 2023. The fighting has claimed over 28,000 lives, displaced millions, and left some families resorting to eating grass as famine spreads across parts of the country.