Heglig Airport (Photo: Fuyufei Panorama.com)

This week the Darfuri rebel group, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), released a statement announcing it attacked Heglig Airport in the oil-rich area near the contested Abyei region. According to the brief statement released by Fidail Mohamed Rahoma, a member of the JEM military high command, the June 9 attack and brief occupation by JEM’s Kordofan branch was “meant to send a clear message to oil companies that use of their airports and other facilities by GoS [Government of Sudan], its army and militia will not go unpunished by the Movement.” The attack has yet to be confirmed by government officials.

The oil fields in Heglig are operated by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium that includes China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), ONGC Videsh — a subsidiary of India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and Sudan’s state-owned oil company, Sudapet.

Darfuri rebel groups, including JEM, have targeted oil companies in the past, kidnapping foreign workers and attacking oil fields. In November 2010, the announcement of plans to begin drilling 19 wells in the Darfur region prompted threats of violence from JEM, who announced, “we are officially threatening the Chinese and anyone else who shall try to extract oil from this region.”

This is not the first time oil activities have been associated directly with violence and military activity. Some companies were accused of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during what has been characterized as a military campaign by the Government of Sudan to secure and take control of oil fields during the war fought between the north and south from 1983 to 2005. In 2000, an airstrip belonging to a consortium operated by Lundin Petroleum was used as headquarters for a Sudan Armed Forces division and Antonov bombers. Similar bombers attacked nearby villages as part of government offensives. Other abuses by military forces associated with oil activities have included indiscriminate attacks, intentional targeting of civilians, burning of shelters, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

These concerns, as well as the companies involved – CNPC, ONGC, Petronas and Sudapet – are discussed in depth in Conflict Risk Network’s Sudan Company Report, used by dozens of major institutional investors. Contact CRN director Melany Grout at Grout@genocideinternvention.net for more information.

Given the risks that conflict, corporate activities, and the intersection between the two pose for people on the ground, companies must take special care in settings like Sudan to ensure they do not infringe on human rights. Not only is it more difficult for companies to do no harm in conflict-affected areas like Darfur and Abyei, but the failure to adhere to standard corporate responsibility practices carries the potential for heightened impacts on communities and on the companies themselves. CRN encourages oil companies to – at minimum – uphold their responsibility to respect human rights, as outlined in the recently released Framework for Business and Human Rights (Ruggie Framework) which calls on companies to conduct a four-step due diligence process to avoid infringing on human rights.

CRN is also actively working to engage with the members of the GNPOC consortium on these issues. For more information, please contact Eryn Schornick, CRN’s Stand-In Head of Engagement, at Schornick@genocideintervention.net.