Land mine explosion damages oil pipeline in northern Sudan, minister says

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov 16, 2004 (AP) — A mine explosion blew a three-meter hole in an oil pipeline in northern Sudan but officials said Tuesday that the line would soon resume pumping.

Archive photo for the pipeline underconstruction. (AFP).

Energy and Mining Minister Awad Ahmed Al Jaz blamed the explosion late Monday night on “a group of cowards,” and other officials said the saboteurs apparently entered the country from the east.

“Immediately the pumping operations were halted altogether and now work is under way to restore the pipeline to normalcy,” Al Jaz told state-run television.

The official Sudan Media Center said one security officer was seriously injured by another land mine blast in the same area, about 20 kilometers northeast of Shendi, in northern Nahr El Nile state.

The television broadcast footage of soaring towers of smoke rising into the sky above the pipeline.

The fire could not be put out immediately because “those who were behind the blast have planted land mines around the area,” Al Jaz said.

The SMC said the government has begun investigating the incident.

General El Fatih Abdul Mutalib, the commissioner of Shendi locality, told SMC that it appeared the attackers sneaked into the country through eastern Sudan . He did not elaborate.

“All indices show that those who carried out the operation are well-trained and experienced in the field of land mines and explosives,” the SMC quoted security sources as saying.