The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) says it has seized control of the strategic Heglig oilfield in Sudan’s South Kordofan province.

The claim early on Monday was supported later by a statement issued by the military government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) saying it had withdrawn from the area. The takeover comes as the RSF, embroiled in a two-and-a-half-year conflict with the SAF, pushes to expand eastwards and southwards from the western Darfur region, over which it took full control last month .

Youssef Alian, the head of the RSF- affiliated “civil administration” in the where the oilfield is situated, asserted in a statement that the takeover happened under his coordination.

He said that he had helped “prepare a special, qualified and trained force … to secure the Heg

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