Sudan’s air force launched a second air offensive on Tuesday, dropping several bombs on an oil-rich area in South Sudan’s Unity State. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear, Colonel Agwar Panyang from the South Sudanese army told DW, because of disruptions to mobile and Internet services.

Colonel Panyang said "people have been displaced" by the bombings.

"The commanders on the ground are not online and we have scattered villages so we cannot say how many people have been displaced," he said on the phone.

South Sudan’s government said the airstrikes were targeting oil fields.

Asian oil group GNPOC - the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, confirmed the bombings.

"The warplanes are hovering everywhere ... One bomb actually just missed Unity base camp but anywhere else so far there is no information," GNPOC Vice President Chom Juaj told Reuters.

"They bombed the oil field but so far we are still waiting for the report from the field telling us if they are damaged or not," he said.

The air bombardment came one day after South Sudanese and Sudanese ground troops clashed at several points along the highly disputed border town of Jau. Each side blamed the other for starting the violence.

Tug-of-war over oil

As a result of the fighting, Sudan's President Bashir has cancelled a planned summit with his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir that was to take place next week in the South Sudanese capital of Juba.

"There is no way for this summit to take place now," Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Taha said.

The summit cancellation has dealt a major blow to negotiations between the two countries on issues left over from a 2005 peace deal that saw South Sudan separate from Sudan in July 2011.

Oil has been the biggest bone of contention between North and South Sudan.

South Sudan shut down oil production late January, accusing its northern neighbor of stealing its main natural resource, depriving both countries of much-needed revenue. North Sudan had earlier complained that its neighbor owed it billions of dollars in unpaid transit fees. South Sudan needs Sudan’s pipeline infrastructure to export its oil.

Bashir’s government has for a long time insisted on being paid 30 euros ($36) per barrel for shipping oil through its pipelines, whereas South Sudan has maintained it can only afford 0.70 euro ($1).

Author: Chrispin Mwakideu (AP, AFP, Reuters, with additional reporting from James Shimayula)
Editor: Kate Hairsine / rm