Sudan said Friday, August 24, it had thwarted attempts by camel-riding rebels to blow up the country's oil export pipeline in eastern Sudan. An interior ministry statement said army and police officers defused landmines and other explosive devices overnight Wednesday by the pipeline, around 100 kilometers southwest of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
The ministry accused the opposition Beja Congress faction of the attempted "ugly act of sabotage," saying leaflets signed by the group were found at the scene, official Omdurman radio reported.
The Beja Congress, accused of a similar attempt on the pipeline in February last year, derives its following from the main east Sudanese Beja tribe and is a member of the umbrella opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The independent Akhbar al-Youm newspaper said five Beja Congress rebels on camel-back infiltrated the area and started digging to bury the explosives, but abandoned the operation and fled after hearing movements of guards.
Sudan began exporting crude oil in mid-1999 through a 1,610-kilometre (1,005-mile) pipeline from Higlieg fields in central Sudan to Beshair terminal on the Red Sea. Since then, rebel factions have increasingly targeted oil facilities as part of an 18-year civil war with successive Khartoum governments.
Interior Minister Abdel Rahman Hussein was cited by the radio as saying the security forces guarding the pipeline found the explosives—which included landmine sticks, time bombs and TNT plates—during a patrol of the area.
A man-hunt has been launched to track down the men who planted the explosives, two of whom have been identified according to unnamed security sources quoted by the official Al-Anbaa newspaper on Friday.
Also found at the scene were digging tools and a newspaper with the title "Sinkab," meaning "the news" in the Beja language, which the interior ministry said was the organ of the Beja Congress party.
Sudan's main rebel group, the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), has claimed several attacks on oil interests this year. — (AFP)
© Agence France Presse
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
