South Sudan Armed Forces says Heglig belongs to the South: ‘We will not withdraw’

The South Sudanese Armed Froces refuse to withdraw, says spokesman Philip Aguer: ‘Heglig belongs to South Sudan’. Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, announced from Khartoum ‘his army will not rest’ before it recaptures control over Heglig Heglig is an oilfield situated in the disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan. ‘We defended ourselves’ Aguer confirmed to Radio Dabanga that the South Sudanese army took control over Heglig. He said, however, that the siege only started after the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) attacked the SSA in Tashwin, a border town South of the border between Sudan and South Sudan, yesterday: ‘Heglig belongs to South Sudan. We did not start this fighting, but after the Sudan Armed Forces attacked us in Tashwin, we start to fight back. They were taken by surprise, we defeated them and we went all the way to Heglig. We will remain there. Before Numeiri (President of Sudan until 1985- ed.), Heglig always belonged to South Sudan and now we took it back. The issue is, that the government of Sudan never draw a borderline, it did not agree on the borders. But they continued to attack us, including aerial bombardments. We then finally decided to defend ourselves.’ The spokesman could not confirm that Kharsana, Dafra and Kailak – other oilfields in the surroundings of Heglig – are attacked by rebel movements who joined the Sudan People Liberation Movement- North (SPLM-N). This group holds its headquarters in Kauda in South Kordofan and is known as the ‘Kauda Front’ or the ‘Sudan Revolutionary Front’ (SRF). SRF will fight for all oilfields Gabriel Adam Bilal, spokesman of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and part of SRF, told Radio Dabanga the SRF is planning to take over all the oilfields in Sudan: ‘We decided to also capture all the other oilfileds. All Sudanese know that the income from the oilfields is not going to the people of Sudan, but to the army, the security and some powerful individuals. We want to stop this and we will continue to fight until the government of Al Bashir will be replaced.’ Tensions between Sudan and South Sudan escalated today as Sudan accused its Southern neighbours of occupying Heglig. South Sudan accused Khartoum of attacks in Teshwin yesterday.