South Sudan's military has moved into the Heglig oilfield under an unprecedented agreement between the country and neighbouring Sudan's warring parties to safeguard critical energy infrastructure from the country's civil war. The deployment on Wednesday came after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the strategic site on December 8, compelling the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) units to retreat across the border into South Sudan, where they reportedly surrendered their weapons.
A military transport aircraft has gone down while attempting to land at an airbase in eastern Sudan, killing all the crew members in the war-ravaged nation. An Ilyushin Il-76 crashed on Tuesday as it approached the Osman Digna airbase in Port Sudan, near the city's main airport, two military sources told the AFP news agency, citing a technical malfunction during the landing attempt.
