[twitter-follow screen_name=’oilnewskenya’]<\/p>\n
Story by Reuters<\/p>\n
South Sudanese rebels said on Tuesday they have seized the capital of oil-producing Unity state, Bentiu, and warned oil firms to pack up and leave within a week.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people have been killed and more than one million displaced since fighting erupted in South Sudan in the middle of December, triggered by a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar.<\/p>\n
“The recapturing of Bentiu marks the first phase of liberation of oil fields from (the) anti-democratic and genocidal forces of Kiir,” rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Urging all oil firms operating in government-held areas to shut their operations and evacuate their staff within a week, he said, “Failure to comply with this request, the oil companies risk forced oil shutdown and the safety of their staff.”<\/p>\n
An oil ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that three Russian oil workers were injured in a rebel attack at a newly built refinery facility in Bentiu yesterday.<\/p>\n
Army spokesman Phillip Aguer said there was fighting in Unity state but he did not have a full report on what had happened.<\/p>\n
“There has been serious fighting in Unity today, so far the SPLA (government) forces are still on the ground but we are still waiting for a full report to tell us exactly what has happened,” Aguer said.<\/p>\n
The civil war in Africa’s newest state has created a humanitarian crisis in the country, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, but has since been plagued by disorder.<\/p>\n
The conflict has also disrupted oil production, which provides a hefty portion of the government’s revenue.<\/p>\n
Upper Nile state is the only province pumping oil in South Sudan since the shutdown in Unity state. Output there stood steady at about 160,000 barrels a day late last month.<\/p>\n
A ceasefire signed in January has been broken frequently and peace talks in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa have stalled often.<\/p>\n
Negotiations have repeatedly been postponed because of a dispute over who should be represented, although IGAD, the regional bloc mediating between the two sides, says the talks are set to resume later this month.<\/p>\n
The lack of progress has frustrated Western backers of the world’s youngest country who are pressing both sides to lay down their weapons.<\/p>\n