The Dark Side of Sudan's Oil

Reporting, photos and video by
Elzahra Jadallah
Additional reporting, editing and visualizations by Annika McGinnis
Coordinated by Fredrick Mugira

The oil story in Sudan is one of controversy, a messy tale of money, conflict and power enmeshed in the country’s decades-long conflict.  A new investigation by InfoNile reveals the dark side of the oil industry for local people in Sudan’s West Kordofan state: from increased droughts and dying animals to strange health conditions for the people and animals exposed to oil contamination in the air, on roads and in local waterways.

There are five major oil sites for oil drilling and processing in West Kordofan state, according to the deputy headmaster of local authority for Misearia tribe, Bashir E: “Jake” located about 15-16 km west to the city, “Star Oil” or “Albarasaia” south to Jake fields, “Mitera” south to Albarasaia, “Moga” 45 km south to Alfola, and “Neem” in west Kordofan that is considered an extension of South Kordofan’s Higlieg fields.

Our journalist visited Alfola city in West Kordofan in April 2018 to seek the truth about oil impacts on the villages near the fields.

Obtaining information was very difficult, as getting into the sites was banned, and the Oil Ministry and oil industries refused to meet the journalist in Khartoum. We had to work undercover to reach the villages surrounding the area. Most of the sources in this story who spoke of health and environmental effects asked to remain anonymous as they fear the consequences of them stepping into the light.

We couldn’t approach the companies at their sites, especially after being warned not to keep digging by a relative of Mr. Bashir E who works for the Oil Security. We contacted many suggested engineers and company workers, but only two spoke to us to give us abetter idea about the chemical wastes and their stand on the contamination claims.

We visited many locations in West Kordofan, got as close as possible to Higlieg, one of the largest oil drilling corporations in Sudan, and met the citizens, some members of local authority, and people working for the companies. We saw the waste locations and some cases of health problems; then we met with experts for more information.

The discovery of oil: for centuries, it has been both a blessing and a curse for some of the world’s poorest countries endowed with rich petroleum reserves.

With oil comes an enormous revenue source, but one that often goes disproportionately to the pockets of corrupt leaders while leaving the majority of the population in poverty. Oil has been shown to trigger conflict and destroy the environment; at the same time it sustains economies and fuels our energy-dependent societies.

In Sudan, the story is no different. Since exploration for oil began in Sudan in 1959, the oil industry has backed the economy of the dry north African state. Oil was also key in the decades-long conflict that embroiled between the Islamic north and the Christian and Animist South, where both sides fought over prime oilfields located strategically along the borderline.

Though Sudan lost most of its oil fields and revenue after the south seceded in 2011, it continues to control the only pipeline for the south to transport its oil to international markets. And in recent months, Sudan and South Sudan have attempted to boost petroleum production, agreeing to soon resume operations at several closed oilfields located near the borderlands.

But while the international politics of oil in Sudan have been extensively studied, the oil industries operate under a great deal of secrecy in their day-to-day operations and interactions with the Sudanese people. Our investigation aimed to shed light on their impacts, to uncover the local consequences of the oil industries on the environment and peoples living around the production sites.

Petroleum in Sudan lays in many places, mainly in Kordofan (south and west), White Nile region, Blue Nile region, Darfur and both Upper Nileand Bahr El Gazal area in addition to the Unity state before the separation of South Sudan.

A great deal of Sudan’s oil is drilled in West Kordofan State, located in the southwestern part of the Kordofan region, one of the country’s richest in natural resources.

Oil exploration started in the 1970s by American and French companies, but now is dominated by Asian companies. Fields in the Kurdufan states are operated by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), the 2B Operating Petroleum Company and Petro-Energy. Most of these companies are jointly owned by Chinese, Malaysian, and Indian investors along with the Sudanese state.

This investigation found that the oil industry’s disposal of toxic oil “production water” and radioactive elements contaminated local waterways and wetlands in West Kordofan region and was linked to a slew of environmental and health impacts for the local peoples living around the processing facilities.

The oil contamination in West Kordofan happens in many forms, from leakage of oil in the extraction process and the industrial sources produced when oil is being treated in addition to the human wastes associated with the oil industry.

Worldwide, if proper safety measures are not followed, petroleum industry wastes are among the most dangerous threats to the environment. Spilled oil residues contain toxic substances such as sulfur, lead, hydrogen sulfide, and other dangerous chemicals, which evaporate into the air or decompose into the ground. Such particles pollute air, water and soil.

While few formal studies have been conducted, our investigation revealed a slew of people around the oil fields who complained of strange illnesses, miscarriages, kidney problems and other serious conditions in themselves and their children that have emerged since the industries came.

Locals told of livestock with unusual tumors, chicken without feathers, and cattle with strange bleeding conditions that were exposed to oil industry wastes.

Trenches built around the oil sites have disrupted the area’s natural flow of water, killing trees and destroying wetlands. Locals said such trenches had caused more droughts, disrupting crop cycles for the farmers living around the area.

In the beginning, large numbers of livestock that drank the contaminated water had died. Locals said other wild animal species had been forced to move from the region.

While some community members said the oil business had helped to develop the area, building schools, water stations, and health centers, others complained that the schools and water stations did not follow proper formal procedures and weren’t linked with the country’s official institutions. Other villagers complained of forced displacement from their homes to a nearby village being constructed by the industry to move them out of the oil locations.

This year, a group of activists called on the government to formally evaluate the environmental repercussions of oil activities and take action to remedy any impacts. Some companies have initiated environmental units seeking to address the concerns. 

My first trip was to Neem village. Neem fields are considered to be an extension to Higleig fields; the oil is extracted and produced by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company.

It was the most distant place in the state from Alfola city. I got help to have a private car belonging to an official entity so that we wouldn’t be stopped in every checkpoint along the road, as the guards were familiar with the driver, dressed as a local woman visiting her relative. One of the youth of the area who works at an organization based in Alfola accompanied me for more safety.

After three hours we arrived at Neem market. The market was like all rural markets which are considered to be the heart of the villages in the area, except everywhere I looked there were army men in their uniforms (Oil Security members) who guard the field.

Around Neem village, we passed the oil wells and processing units. Flairs were burning the gas waste extracted from the oil drilling. A resident from the area named Abd Alhamied met me at the market and gave me a tour around.

On my second trip, again with the anonymous sources that facilitated my movement, I visited Jajaia. The village was east of Albarasaia site by 4 km, 10 km from Mitera flair, 25 km south to Jake compound, “In the middle of the action” as the guide said joking. I met Mamoun A, a citizen there who has lived all his life in the village; he took me around many villages in the area where I met people of different ages, stories and points of view.

Villagers around the drilling sites in West Kurdufan said the oil industries had altered the natural environment, complaining of more droughts, cut forests, reduced wildlife species and detriments to agriculture.

“Before the oil exploration, the area was rich with forests and wild trees; most of them fruitful,” the village resident, Mamoun, said. “Those trees had been either cut when the companies first arrived or died over time. We used to have bamboo plants which we use to build our local houses; not anymore; petroleum business changed the environment with the wastes, gases and radiations.

“Wildlife as well has been affected significantly, as the trees were cut and the increased human activity forced the animals to move. There were monkeys, gazelles, foxes and other animals that don’t exist here anymore; they run away to the south; even the wild grass doesn’t grow anymore.”

West Kurdufan is hot, ranging from a semi-humid climate to a desert with little water.

The majority population in the region are the Misseriyya, a cattle-raising Arab pastoralist tribe that has been living in the area since the end of the 1700s. In 2005, about three-quarters of the about 1.2 million Misseriyya people living in West Kurdufan were rural.

Most of the Misseriyya people were originally shepherds who lost their cattle during the civil war; “then they tried to settle and practice agriculture,” said the deputy headmaster of Misearia tribe.

But the quantity and quality of crops had declined over the years, he said. In the past, one field could produce up to a dozen varieties of crops; now just one or two, the local resident Mamoun said. There were more droughts now, especially close to the flairs, and the rain rate had dropped considerably.

In Baliela, Albarasaia and the surrounding areas, the change is great and people should move away from those places, away from oil locations, Mamoun said.

In 2012, after the South Sudanese army invaded the area and took over some oil locations in Higleig, the Sudanese government dug deep trenches to protect the oil fields. This changed local water courses and caused rivers and streams to dry up, the Misearia headmaster said. The companies required people to move further and further away from the trenches – from 10 kilometers to 70 kilometers away, he said.

“Due to that, most of the natural ponds in the area are dry now that people used to rely on as a source of water,” he said.

Satellite images show a distinct change in Western Upper Nile/Unity State regions from 1965 to 2000 due to oil production, a 2003 Human Rights Watch report found. Construction of roads and survey evacuations by oil companies contributed to dried-out rivers and streams and changed the underlying water table of the area, the report found.

Deforestation from oil extraction triggered conflict among the Missiriya tribe, in addition to water pollution and deaths of cattle, according to a 2009 report by the Overseas Development Institute. Discontent grew further due to a lack of youth employment in the oil sector. The tribe eventually kidnapped Chinese oil workers in 2008, resulting in four deaths, the report found.

However, environmental changes were not solely a result of oil activities. Sara Omer, an environmental researcher based in Khartoum, said that the environmental problems in the west of the country dated back to a time of drought during the 1980s, which drove people to migrate to West Kordofan.

The increased population put more pressure on the resources, practiced uncontrolled hunting, over-cultivated the soil and over-grazed. Natural population growth, climate change and reduced rainfall exacerbated environmental destruction, Omer said.

Abeer Abd-Abd-Algaume, an environmental researcher currently working on the impact of mining, said population growth and migration had also contributed to the environmental changes in West Kordofan.

“Since the area had been subject to civil wars, a lot of people were often displaced from other places and came to more safer areas – around oil fields for example, as they are well guarded – as the population grew; they put more pressure into the natural resources in the area," she said.

"They cut and burn the forests for charcoal, their animals overgraze, and even sometimes they over-cultivate the land. The population expansion not only pressure the resources; it also affects the wildlife as the animals flee what used to be their natural home,” she said, adding that poverty as well forced people to overuse resources.

Both researchers said there was lack of effective governmental policies and strategies for sustainable development in the area.

It is further difficult to implement laws since traditional local authorities were replaced by governmental authorities who lack the trust of the local people to be able to approach them with their issues, Abd-Abd-Algaume said.

Problems with contamination of water largely stem from the processes used in disposing of industry waste in large vats that overflow during the rainy season and pollute local waterways, according to local authorities and citizens in West Kurdufan.

Oil blocks 4 and 5 within Sudan and South Sudan fall into parts of two of the biggest tropical wetlands in the world: Bahr el Ghazal, which is one of the five large Nile River Basins, and the Sudd wetland, a Ramsar World Heritage site recognized for its ecological importance.

But most of West Kurdufan in the north is hot and dry, with frequent droughts and rainfall that varies significantly depending on the place and season. Since water is scarce, finding access to adequate water sources to raise their cattle and crops has been a central point for tensions and conflict among the Misseriyya tribe, especially after the oil industries came in the 1980s, according to a 2009 report by the Overseas Development Institute.

The tribe lives in small camps of household groups, which traditionally migrate with their herds from the north to the south to follow the rainy seasons. But when the oil companies came, they built drilling sites, pipelines and roadbeds on the tribe’s farmland and grazing areas.

These blocked the tribe’s migration routes and reduced the flow of water to their farms, the report found. And as more people moved to the area seeking economic opportunities around oil, more pressure was put on the already-limited water resources.

Oil contamination from the drilling sites has also seeped into local waterways, causing health and environmental consequences, this investigation found.

In April at the liquid waste site near Neem village, a large hopper was connected to another smaller fenced one with pipes pumping in liquid wastes from oil activities. The large hopper wasn’t fenced, as citizens had stolen the iron from the fence to make beds, Alhamied said. The main pipe was pumping water into a large concrete squire shaped sink.

“In autumn – the rainy season- the pond is filled, and its water gets mixed with the water that goes to the wetlands and seasonal creeks,” Mamoun, a local resident, said. “Now we don’t let our animals drink from it as it’s not covered as you can see, but in the past many of them died in large numbers at the first production of oil in the area.”

Citizens were facing similar problems in Jajaia, another community in West Kurdufan located 4 kilometers east of Albarasaia site.

Initially, the local people benefited from many natural ponds and surface water sources fed by rain; the water was potable and clear, Mamoun said. But last year, an oil well exploded in the valley, “and the water came mixed with oil,” Mamoun said.

“We have warned the people from using it for domestic uses or for the animals; and currently we don’t use valley’s water at all as there are many wells and water waste locations in the valley, and of course the chemicals in the bonds that’s filled by the rain and reaching the stream,” he said.

As early as 1999, the Sudanese Environmental Conservation Society complained that China’s CNPC had contaminated water through oil extraction, which seeped back into underground waters in fragile wetlands such as the Sudd in South Sudan.

In June 2014, the Sudanese oil ministry admitted that oil workers in West Kurdufan had been accidentally exposed to radiation, the Sudan Tribune reported.

The deputy headmaster of Misearia tribe, which makes up the majority of the population in West Kurdufan, emphasized that water contamination in the area came mainly from the oil companies’ waste management processes.

This is the stage in oil drilling where the raw oil is processed and toxic water called “production water” or “drilling fluid” is separated from the oil, according to Mahmoud Badawi, a well-site and operation geologist who works for an oil company in another area of Sudan.

The toxic chemicals originally enter the water through the drilling process, where chemically treated water called drilling fluid is used to extract oil. Under heavy pressure, the fluid is used in the well to pump the oil to the surface.

At the end of the process, this toxic water gets biologically treated before being put in a basin, which then flows through a pipe to a treatment pit. Usually, a special type of plant is grown around the treatment pit that helps absorb toxins in the water, Badawi said.

“The pits are padded with plastic coating to avoid leaking; these pits also get exposed to the sun for long periods of time, which ends any toxic effect, and after they are through they bury it,” he said.

But often the pits overflow in rainy season, leaking the toxic water to the waterways and valleys nearby where the people live, the deputy headmaster of Misearia tribe said.

Prof. Asim El-Moghraby of the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society said the water contamination also entered the Nile River, the longest river in Africa that stretches through 11 countries from Uganda to Egypt.

In April at a house near the processing plant, a cow was drinking from a plastic container similar to the ones stacked in the company facilities.

The headmaster of Misearia tribe said local citizens often got exposed to chemicals through reusing plastic containers and barrels of chemicals from the companies to use in their homes for domestic use.

Another danger factor is exposure to the radiant materials used in some devices after the drilling to detect the physical properties of sub-surface layers, according to Badawi. Still, he said the dangers were intended to be limited since the radiation range is only 20 meters and the materials are saved in shields handled only by specialists.

The problems further result from flairs that burn throughout the year, emitting gases that pollute the air, according to Badawi.

In 2010, Sudan burned about 11.8 billion cubic meters of gas, representing 0.2% of the total gas consumed globally. In each cubic meter of burned gas, 2 kg of carbon dioxide is generated in the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide as well as methane and nitrogen dioxide gases released through oil activities absorb significant heat, leading to higher global temperatures and worsening climate change. Methane holds 21 times more heat and nitrogen dioxide absorbs 270 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

Mr. Omar, who works for an oil company in Higlieg, said the companies were responsible for disposing oil wastes. He said there were no residential areas besides the processing units around.

“Our processing unit is just to carry out the initial testing for crude oil and monitoring the wells state and transferring the oil to the Khartoum refinery through pipelines,” he said.

He said all of the Higleig oil processing locations were “free of waste.”

“After finishing from chemical barrels or cans, we collect them all and damage them using forklift. Even after the drilling rig finishes, we can’t move to another well unless we get approval by environment section,” he said.

“We deal with wastes seriously and monitor the disposal area; it’s well secured. Liquid wastes are sucked by vacuum truck and sent to processing units to be reused again.”

Regarding the claims of contamination and the effects on local people, Mr. Omar, who works for an oil corporation in Higleig, said “it’s a big challenge, and most of the local people know the working area and its effect on them and their animals.”

Over the years, the government and oil companies responded to claims of environmental and health impacts by establishing environmental units, conducting reports and making plans to address the issues. However, these plans were not publicly available, and it was unclear whether they had been implemented.

In January 2018, a local committee of scientists, experts and environment specialists held a conference where they presented papers on environmental pollution and spreading of fetal illnesses that had occurred allegedly due to oil industry activities.

To address some concerns, the companies had moved local peoples away from oil sites. In 2018, the government was building new villages for some of these displaced peoples in the Neem area.

Despite these efforts, it was unclear whether the companies had changed the way of handling dangerous wastes, and they did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

This investigation comes at a time when Sudan and South Sudan are working together to boost their oil revenues in the fields along the borderline.

In June, petroleum ministers in both countries agreed to jointly repair oil infrastructure damaged during the civil war and resume operations at several closed oilfields located near the borderlands within several months. These fields, including Alher, Alnar, Mathaos, and Hamra, are expected to produce about 100,000 barrels of oil a day.

Control over the country’s oilfields, which lie strategically along the split between Sudan and South Sudan, has been an extremely contentious issue in the centuries-long conflict between the Islamic north and Christian and Animist south of Sudan that culminated in the formal secession of South Sudan in 2011.

Both Sudan and South Sudan’s economies are supported heavily by oil exports – especially the south, which has almost no other major revenue source and uses oil revenues to fund military spending.

Before the break, oil accounted for more than 90% of Sudan’s export revenues. But with 75 percent of oilfields located in the south of the country, oil revenues for north Sudan dropped to just 11% of the total country’s exports in 2016: $336 million, compared to $5,244 billion in 2006, according to International Monetary Fund Staff Reports.

While South Sudan holds most of the oil, the north still controls most of the oil processing infrastructure as well as the only pipeline for the south to transport oil to international markets. The north receives a commission per barrel that the south transports to the port along the Red Sea.

In 2016, the countries renegotiated terms for transporting South Sudanese oil along the Sudanese pipeline, with South Sudan agreeing to continue paying Sudan a commission to transport oil for three years, until 2019.

Sudan also agreed that the south could use an oil base camp, with power and materials, established on the Sudanese side at Higlieg.

In the villages surrounding the oil companies in West Kurdufan, residents complained of a range of unexplained health issues that had emerged since the industries came. In Neem village, Siddig, a medical assistant at a pharmacy in the market, said he had treated many people with strange symptoms.

“There are many unusual cases of illnesses that we didn’t had in the past,” Siddig said. “There are allergies, stomach inflammations, Hepatitis, arthritis; people over 50 are struggling to move; they need pain killers and creams; all of that was very rare before in this area.”

Many local residents complained about their health: “I am not active as I used to be; before I could walk long distances; now I suffer from fatigue when I am home; and when I travel to other places I am fit again,” one said.

One woman said that she had about 5 miscarriages respectively in the past few years. Her mother said many other women had also been experiencing miscarriages in the village. The medical assistant Siddig also listed many new cases of miscarriages.

These problems were occurring without women “carrying heavy things or making efforts,” Mamoun said.

After many deaths related to oil wastes near a field to the northeast of Higlieg, many citizens moved away. There were even people who became destitute after the death of their animals, Bashir E. said.

“Even our domestic animals had changed; like the chicken there,” Mamoun said, pointing to a small chicken that lacked feathers all over most of its body. “Some of our lamps had shown unusual tumors under their skin... I used to have a cattle containing 200 cows, and now I am left with 30 only.

“Sometime ago we had an odd disease, as the cows have a fever and start bleeding through all body exits then they die; my relative lost 8 cows on one night.”

Three children under four months old from different villages across a 6 km area showed similar cases of allergies. Their mothers said they had visited the doctor to get creams yet there had been no improvement. One child age 12 had been unable to move since he was three.

“He just started to face hardship moving and gradually lost the ability to move his legs; and his body has changed,” said his mother. He was the second of two children with the same case; the other child had moved to Khartoum for treatment. When asked about his life, the child said, “I don’t have a life.”

Another villager described three children who were born missing a part of their skulls. “As the child grows up, their heads grow bigger and they died eventually,” the villager said.

Siddig said no official entity had come to look into these problems in the past year since he had settled in the village.

He thought many of the problems stemmed from the chemically treated oil production water.

“The new roads in oil locations; it’s all dirt roads and they pour production water filled with chemicals into it to stabilize the soil; it’s obvious after they do it as you can see the ground turning white,” he said. “After it dries and with the movement of cars all these substances spread in the air; there are many sinus diseases.”

Citizens thought the water wells and tanks built by the oil companies in cooperation with the rural water corporation were also contributing to health problems, as the stations did not have water filters and were located close to the companies’ waste treatment areas.

Citizens around the area use these new water stations regularly as their traditional rope wells are almost gone, Mamoun said. The villagers deliver water to their homes using donkey carriages, as there are no pipelines in the area.

Since people starting using the new water stations, there have been many more cases of kidney problems, Mamoun said. Other stations were closed due to high rates of illnesses. Now, the whole of Albarasaia relied on just two stations for healthy water.

A water official in Alfola city, Omar Qantour, said the national Rural Water Corporation was not responsible for these stations because they were built by the companies as part of their development plans for the rural areas.

After establishing them, they leave the management to the people themselves, Qantour said. “They have a section responsible for testing and providing water; they do their own studies and execute without our interference.”

While there have been few reports to date on the health impacts of oil contamination in either of the Sudans, a June 2016 report by Juliana Bol of Johns Hopkins University reported unconfirmed increases in stomach problems, skin rashes, pregnancy complications, abortions and livestock deaths that were attributed to water contamination by the oil industry in Unity State of South Sudan.

Worldwide, oil exploitation has been shown to cause similar health problems. A 2004 paper analyzing the health impacts of oil in Ecuador’s Amazon basin found that the discharge of oil and untreated wastes into Ecuador’s land and waters had killed fish and other aquatic life.

The paper also found that the contamination had contributed to abortion, skin issues, malnutrition, fatigue, digestive issues and higher mortality rates: many of the same issues discovered in this investigation.

Historically, oil was enmeshed within the conflict between the north and the south, which stemmed from centuries of neglect of the Southern part of the country by Sudan’s rulers: first the Ottoman-Egyptians and then British colonizers before the post-independence Islamic government.

In the mid-1970s, the country discovered large quantities of oil in the Western Upper Nile areas within then-southern Sudan. To control these areas, President Nimeiri led his army over two decades to divide and displace the population living in the oilfields.

The North-ruled government also attempted to change the borders between the South and the North so that new oil fields were shifted within the Northern boundaries.

Sudan completed its first pipeline from the Southern oilfields to Port Sudan on the Red Sea in 1999, the route that is still used to this day.

Since South Sudan seceded, oil production in both countries has lagged due to continuing north-south conflict and a civil war that broke out in South Sudan over power struggles within the ruling party, a report by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies found in May 2017.

In January 2012, South Sudan shut down oil production for 15 months due to a disagreement with the north over the pipeline transit fees. More oilfields were closed when South Sudan’s civil war broke out in December 2013.

The fighting physically damaged some oil infrastructure, while hundreds of foreign, mostly Chinese, oil workers were evacuated due to safety concerns, the Oxford report found.

According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy published in June 2016, armed conflict and political intervention in South Sudan reduced oil production between 2012 and 2015 to 108,500 barrels a day: just one third of production levels at independence.

In 2018, the three fields of Higlieg, Defra, and Neem produced about 72,000 b/d. This production did not even cover domestic use in recent months, with people queuing for hours at petrol stations due to fuel shortages, Reuters reported.

Despite recent attempts to revive the oil industry, some studies predict that production in both states has most likely already peaked, with Sudan’s production expected to fall below 100,000 barrels per day within 10 years, while South Sudan’s is expected to drop to the same level before 2030, a 2015 report found by the Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies at Maison de la Paix, Geneva.

Asian companies have dominated Sudan’s oil sector since the 1990s, while the U.S. and other Western oil majors largely steered clear of involvement in Sudan’s economy due to concerns over human rights abuses during the civil war.

China is Sudan’s main oil export destination, followed by Malaysia and India.

China’s stake in Sudan’s oil industry has increased over the years as other countries’ involvement has waned: with the China National Petroleum Corporation controlling 94% of exports in 2016 from 62% in 2001.

In 2016, 94% of Sudan’s oil exports, valuing $307 million, went to China. 5.2% went to Japan and 1.3% went to India, according to OEC data.

Long-standing US sanctions that prohibited the US from operating any business in Sudan were eventually revoked in 2017.

While Sudan’s oil industry falls officially under the Ministry of Petroleum, the state-owned Sudanese Petroleum Corporation (SPC) and the national oil company Sudapet have large powers in the management of oil exploration, production and distribution.

There is a critical lack of oversight in the operations of these companies, as neither parliament nor the Ministry of Finance and National Economy formally approves their budgets, and auditor general reports are not made public, according to a report published about Sudan’s oil industry in 2015.

In Sudan, a range of small domestic companies with familial or business ties to the governing regime also control stakes in the industry, the report found.

State police referred to as “oil police” are also closely involved in guarding the boundaries of the oil fields.

The companies’ presence in the area was not all negative: Some citizens of West Kurdufan said the industry had also helped the local communities through building local infrastructure in rural areas. Two percent of revenues from the companies are supposed to go to the local communities.

“Before we didn’t have roads; traveling was very hard between these villages especially in autumn,” local resident Abd Alhamied said. “They built schools, water stations, health centers and helped developing the area.”

In April, a village was under construction about 15 km away from the oil company, where the villagers were soon to be moved to away from the drilling activity. The village already contained many buildings, some of them completed and some still under construction: two schools - a primary and a secondary, a hospital, police station, girls students accommodation and a water station.

But some people living in the area said they were not happy about moving to new place.

At an organization that works on peace building and development in Alfola city, activists from the rural areas, who chose to stay anonymous to protect their safety, confirmed that the oil companies had established many new facilities in their neighborhoods.

However, such infrastructure was not linked with the official institutions, they said. The schools did not belong to the Ministry of Education and lacked qualified staff; water stations did not belong to the official Rural Water Corporation, and after the companies established them they just handed them over to the local community to run them; health centers did not have resident doctors or appropriate supplies.

“It’s a state of an unequal negotiation and compromise between the companies and local people; the companies want to keep working and the citizens want development; that’s why it happens without preparation, studies or links to the official institutions,” one activist said.

Other activists from West Kurdufan, who also prefer to stay hidden, wrote a proclamation called “Local Committee to Combat Environmental Contamination by Oil Business in West Kurdufan” through Whatsapp that was signed by 15 people so far in April. The activists had also collected some leaked photos of health complications linked to oil contamination while conducting research in Higleig.

The proclamation called for government, civil society organizations, political powers, the human rights commission, national and global contamination combat institutions, experts, and oil companies to save the state from the environmental impact of the oil on people’s lives in West Kurdofan.

The call requested the government to assign a team of experts to evaluate the situation, stop the trenches causing the drought in the area, achieve environmental balance and work by the standard safety measures.

Citizens in Jajaia village, surrounded by oil fields, hoped their stories could be heard so that change could come.

"God wanted his created beings and elements to be in specific balance, he says 'and everything we created in a known amount,' and 'we planted everything in balance,'" the activist call wrote.

"We must stop the pollution in West Kordofan, take legal actions against the polluters, and protect forests, plants, aqua life, wildlife, water resources, and climate."

This project was made possible with support from InfoNile and Internews' Earth Journalism Network. © InfoNile January 2019.