In a dramatic escalation of Sudan’s ongoing civil conflict, South Sudan has taken the extraordinary step of deploying its military to secure the Heglig oil field, a site of immense economic and strategic significance straddling the border between the two countries. The move comes after Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the oil-rich area on December 8, 2025, forcing government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) units to retreat into South Sudanese territory. The fallout has triggered a flurry of diplomatic activity and a sharp increase in humanitarian concerns, underscoring the volatility gripping the region.
Heglig is not just another patch of contested ground; it’s the beating heart of South Sudan’s oil industry. According to Al Jazeera, the field houses a central processing facility capable of handling up to 130,000 barrels of crude per day—oil that is piped north through Sudan to the Red Sea, providing a lifeline for both nations’ battered economies. The site also encompasses Block 6, Sudan’s largest producing field, making its stability a matter of existential importance for both governments.
The RSF’s seizure of Heglig marked a major advance in a conflict that has already killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over 14 million, according to The Sudan Tribune. The fighting has pushed parts of Sudan into famine, creating what the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect calls “one of the world’s gravest atrocity crises,” with civilians enduring “unimaginable harm while the international community fails to respond.”
Recognizing the gravity of the moment, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir initiated urgent phone discussions with Sudan’s Army Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. The trio agreed to a tripartite arrangement designed to “completely neutralise the Heglig field from any combat operations,” as South Sudan People’s Defence Forces Chief of Staff Paul Nang told state broadcaster SSBC News. “The primary goal is to completely neutralise the Heglig field from any combat operations… because it represents an economic lifeline not only for South Sudan but for Sudan as well,” Nang emphasized.
Under the terms of this unprecedented agreement, both Sudanese forces—the SAF and the RSF—were to withdraw from the immediate vicinity of Heglig, leaving South Sudanese troops to secure the facility and ensure the safety of vital infrastructure. Nang confirmed, “Now it is the forces of South Sudan that are in Heglig.” The deployment, he added, was firmly rooted in a previous oil and security cooperation pact between Khartoum and Juba, which outlines the protection of oil fields, pipelines, and central pumping stations, as well as cooperation in the energy sector.
But the situation on the ground remains fraught. The SAF’s retreat from Heglig was not a simple matter of ceding ground; it involved the evacuation of more than 1,700 personnel—including 60 officers and 1,650 non-commissioned officers—across the border into South Sudan’s Unity State, where they surrendered their weapons to the South Sudan People’s Defence Force (SSPDF). According to South Sudan’s Minister of Information, Communication, and Technology, Ateny Wek Ateny (as cited by The Sudan Tribune), “The SAF units that entered into the Republic of South Sudan as required by international law to surrender their weapons to the SSPDF… The forces that entered South Sudan are safe. And they are now being arranged to be taken back to their country.”
South Sudanese officials reported that the retreating SAF troops handed over not just small arms, but also tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery to the authorities in Unity State. The exodus was swift and sizable—Unity State officials told Al Jazeera that approximately 3,900 Sudanese soldiers crossed into Rubkona County after evacuating Heglig. The withdrawal was accompanied by a mass civilian flight, with thousands of people fleeing across the border since December 8, seeking safety from the intensifying clashes.
The urgency of the operation was underscored by a deadly drone strike on December 9, just hours before South Sudanese troops moved in. The attack, confirmed by the SAF, targeted RSF fighters at Heglig and killed dozens, including three South Sudanese soldiers. Local media reported that seven tribal leaders and numerous RSF personnel also died in the strike, highlighting the ever-present risk of collateral damage to both military and civilian actors in the area.
Tribal leaders, too, played a critical role in brokering the agreement to keep Heglig neutral, facilitating the safe evacuation of oil workers and helping to avoid a potentially catastrophic battle at the facility. The aim was clear: prevent sabotage or destruction of infrastructure that is essential not just for South Sudan’s economic survival, but also for Sudan, whose own finances are deeply entwined with oil transit revenues.
The deployment of South Sudanese troops is being touted by officials as strictly neutral. As Nang put it, their presence is intended solely to “maintain strict neutrality” and safeguard the oil field. Yet the arrangement is anything but business as usual. Jan Pospisil, a South Sudan expert at Coventry University, told Al Jazeera, “From the SAF’s perspective, they don’t want the RSF to find another possible revenue stream, and it is better from their perspective for South Sudan to take control of the area.” He added that the RSF “can’t really defend against air attacks by the SAF, as we saw with this drone strike, and they don’t need money right now.”
Meanwhile, the wider humanitarian crisis continues to deepen. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that more than 1,000 people were forced from their homes in South Kordofan within just 48 hours as fighting between the SAF and RSF escalated. The IOM’s field teams documented sharp spikes in displacement from villages surrounding Abbasiya, Talodi, and Kadugli, with hundreds fleeing to West and North Kordofan as the violence intensified. Weeks of fierce combat across North, West, and South Kordofan have uprooted tens of thousands, compounding a crisis that has steadily worsened since the outbreak of hostilities in April 2023.
Conditions in RSF-controlled areas are dire. In South Darfur, the Sudan Doctors Network reported that more than 19,000 people—including 5,434 civilians and 73 medical workers—are being held in overcrowded detention centers with severe shortages of food, water, and medicine. The group warned that deaths are rising inside the prisons, with “four or more deaths recorded weekly due to medical neglect and the absence of trained staff or access to emergency evacuation.” The network has called on the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations to pressure the RSF to release detainees and improve conditions in the detention centers.
The RSF’s seizure of Heglig marks the latest in a series of strategic advances as the conflict’s center of gravity shifts from Darfur to the vast Kordofan region. The paramilitary force secured complete control of Darfur in October with the fall of el-Fasher, prompting international alarm over mass atrocities and a warning from UN human rights chief Volker Turk that Kordofan could see a repeat of the horrors witnessed in Darfur.
As the dust settles—at least temporarily—over Heglig, the situation remains precarious. The neutralization of the oil field may have averted immediate disaster, but the underlying conflict continues to rage, pushing millions into displacement and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe. The world, for now, watches as South Sudan’s gamble to safeguard the region’s economic engine plays out against a backdrop of war and uncertainty.
