By Adel Abdelrheem and Mohammad Sio
KHARTOUM / ISTANBUL (AA) - One person was killed and four others were injured when a drone strike hit an oil pumping station Saturday in the southern town of al-Jabalayn in Sudan’s White Nile state, a government official said, blaming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the attack.
A worker at the station told Anadolu on condition of anonymity that a drone fired four missiles at the facility, killing an engineer. He said the strike also hit the station’s power unit and water tank.
A government official in al-Jabalayn, who also requested anonymity, said an RSF drone targeted the oil pumping station, killing the engineer and wounding four others. He said the attack destroyed several structures inside the facility.
There was no comment from Sudanese authorities or the RSF on the report.
The al-Jabalayn station is the first pumping point for crude oil transported from fields in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state to Sudan’s Bashayer port on the Red Sea for export.
The war between the army and the RSF has repeatedly disrupted the flow of South Sudanese oil through Sudan.
Before the conflict, South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, exported around 120,000 barrels of oil per day through Sudanese territory.
Sudanese authorities and rights groups have accused the RSF of using drones to target civilians in several cities. The RSF denies the accusations and claims it aims to protect civilians.
The conflict in Sudan between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, according to the World Health Organization.