Sudanese army seizes southern Libyan town - Polidicks

[quote]Officials overseeing the no-fly zone enforced by Nato over Libya said the Sudanese move north of border had not encountered resistance from troops loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi. Since the February uprising against his regime, the Libyan leader's forces have been concentrated around Tripoli, the capital; Sirte, the eastern town that is Col Gaddafi's birthplace and Sebha, the desert outpost where the dictator grew up. Officials said control of the town of Kufra and nearby military base granted the Sudanese a key strategic foothold between the regime and the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) which holds the eastern seaboard and a series of rebel enclaves. The Sudanese have not disrupted efforts to resume oil production on nearby southern oilfields. "Our surveillance shows that they are not moving oil, so its not about money in the short term," said one Western official. "The commercial oil companies monitoring is reporting that there has been no movement of oil out of Libya. Related Articles But the Sudanese clearly now have a stake in Libya re-emerging in the oil market. "The Gaddafi army was coming in and taking out the oilfields every time the rebels start pumping oil. They've dismantled the fields quite carefully so the rebels need security down there. Clearly there needs to be tribal support but the Sudanese could make it too risky for Gaddafi's intervention as well." The last attack on the Mislah and Sarir oilfields took place on June 12, just days before the deployment of Sudanese forces to Kufra. Rebel spokesmen said they hoped to produce up to 250,000 barrels per day from the oilfields and pump it along a pipeline to the Marsa al-Haringa depot near Tobruk. Hundreds of Chadian refugees were this week reported to have fled Kufra to the Gaddafi-controlled town of Sebha. An assessment team from the International Organisation for Migration issued an appeal for 2,000 Chadians fleeing violence across Libya to be provided a safe route home. "There has been a lot of fighting in the Kufra area and people have decided to make their way to safer stations on the road home," said Qasim Sufi, the IOM team leader in Sirte. British officials in Benghazi have worked closely with Libyan rebels on resuming oil pumping. Tribal leaders told a British team on May 12 that a brigade of fighters would be formed from Jalu and Kufra to protect oil infrastructure in the south. Mustafa al-Sagezli, the deputy leader of the oil infrastructure force known as the February 17th Martyrs command, has said that pumping oil north through the pipeline can resume within weeks. Mazen Ramadan, a financial adviser to the Transistional National Council, yesterday said the opposition was facing a cash crisis that had left it unable to pay for imports or meet salaries for its employees. It wants its western backers to advance loans against the vast Libyan state funds frozen in US and European bank accounts. Rebels gained access to a $100 million (£62 million) financing arrangement this week but that money has mainly been spent on medicines and basic needs. Altogether $1 billion (£620 million) has been pledged to the (TNC) but most of the money has not been handed over. Without oil sales, the opposition complain their administration is incapable of battling Gaddafi and running the rebel safehavens. "We don't have any money. We are working with a lot of people but it seems like a time-consuming process, and we need the money," Mr Ramadan said. "We proposed a mechanism to perhaps get loans on the frozen assets and then use this mechanism to ensure transparency." A summit in Istanbul next month will be dominated by legal negotiations on releasing Libya reserves frozen by United Nations sanctions.[/quote] [url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8611199/Sudanese-army-seizes-southern-Libyan-town.html[/url] I have no idea what to think of this.

Well, this just made an already complicated situation even worse.

africa wouldn't be africa without gratuitous amounts of warfare and bloodshed

Sudan is going to take over Libya and put them under another dictator. Africa is so progressive!

Oh for fuck sake Africa, seriously? Don't you want to move out of the fucking dark ages.

[QUOTE=kebab52;30874213]Oh for fuck sake Africa, seriously? Don't you want to move out of the fucking dark ages.[/QUOTE] Hehehe 'dark'

It reminds me of the time when Chad totally kicked Libya's ass with pickup trucks in the late '80s. :v:

Hasa diga eebowai!

[QUOTE=Tac Error;30874458]It reminds me of the time when Chad totally kicked Libya's ass with pickup trucks in the late '80s. :v:[/QUOTE] Bet he was all like: [I]Bitches don't know 'bout my [/I][B]Hilux[/B] :c00l:

They Sudan't of done that.

It's a 4some now.

The Chad military effectively is occupying a portion of the southern regions on behalf of Ghaddafi. I'm wondering why the Sudanese are holding this area and what their relationship is to the government/rebels.

Wait, so essentially, the Sudanese have entered this conflict on someone's behalf. The question is, who the fuck are they fighting for, if not for themselves?

Wait who are the Sudans helping? Gaddafi or the rebels? The article made it seem like they're helping the Rebels by taking control of oil fields and making it harder for Gaddafi's forced to intervene with the rebels...

[QUOTE=kebab52;30874213]Oh for fuck sake Africa, seriously? Don't you want to move out of the fucking dark ages.[/QUOTE] Because we all know Sudan's moves represent Africa as a whole.

[QUOTE=Ven Kaeo;30876799]Wait who are the Sudans helping? Gaddafi or the rebels? The article made it seem like they're helping the Rebels by taking control of oil fields and making it harder for Gaddafi's forced to intervene with the rebels...[/QUOTE] I do believe neither.

No matter how you want to see their reasoning - politically, morally, religiously, whatever, the situation still boils down to them being attention whores.

Nato shouldn't have gotten into this conflict.

[QUOTE=Miskatonic;30879153]Nato shouldn't have gotten into this conflict.[/QUOTE] Oh yeah, that'd have made things [i]much[/i] better.

Is Sudan looking to have their army wiped by air strikes?

That's a sudan move.

Don't quite know what to think about this...

Anyone else think that we are going to have a massive clusterfuck that will become a war ?

[QUOTE=Itsjustguy;30880606]Anyone else think that we are going to have a massive clusterfuck that will become a war ?[/QUOTE] 16th century Germany all over again.

[QUOTE=RAG Frag;30880346]Is Sudan looking to have their army wiped by air strikes?[/QUOTE] NATO is currently at the helm (as opposed to the United States during the early portion), and I imagine NATO is going to be pretty conservative in its approach. It may even elect to do nothing. Ideally the Sudanese forces would have been bombed the instant they tried to take territory followed shortly by further air strikes against Sudanese infrastructure. Letting them take territory and entrench themselves is going to lead to a lot of deaths. The Libyans aren't just going to let them take oil fields. A massive amount of aggression right now would likely go a long way to saving lives in the future.

£20 says they're either stealing the oil, or protecting it so the market doesn't get too fucked up. [QUOTE=The mouse;30874656]They Sudan't of done that.[/QUOTE] "Have" not "of".

[QUOTE=TropicalV2;30874178]africa wouldn't be africa without gratuitous amounts of warfare and bloodshed[/QUOTE] Not in the modern era, anyway. Remember, at certain points in history, African societies were beacons of civilization.

[QUOTE=Itsjustguy;30880606]Anyone else think that we are going to have a massive clusterfuck that will become a war ?[/QUOTE] Libya Civil War - Chad + Libya Regime vs. Anti Gaddafi + NATO + UN standby'ers Sudanese Aggression - Chad + Libya vs. North Sudan Er.. would be how I would think of it, if it came to it.

[QUOTE=Roof;30880662]Libya Civil War - Chad + Libya Regime vs. Anti Gaddafi + NATO + UN standby'ers Sudanese Agression - Chad + Libya vs. North Sudan Er.. would be how I would think of it, if it came to it.[/QUOTE] Not quite sure what you're trying to say, but I'll assume you are correct.

Why isn't this getting wider coverage You'd think something like this would be all over the fucking place [editline]4th July 2011[/editline] I went on NATO's Libya site looking for info. Found nothing relevant but I did find this [img]http://imgkk.com/i/9fr9.jpg[/img] Presumably a satellite image of somewhere in Libya :)