Sudan’s largest oil refinery on fire amid civil war, satellite photos show

Sudan's largest oil refinery ablaze amid civil war, causing environmental and economic concerns, as international mediation efforts fail.

Fighting around Sudan’s largest oil refinery set the sprawling complex ablaze, satellite data analyzed by The Associated Press on Saturday (January 25, 2025) shows, sending thick, black polluted smoke over the country’s capital.

The attacks around the refinery, owned by Sudan’s government and the state-run China National Petroleum Corp., represent the latest woe in a civil war between the rebel Rapid Support Force (RSF) and Sudan’s military, who blamed each other for the blaze.

International mediation attempts and pressure tactics, including a U.S. assessment that the RSF and its proxies are committing genocide, have not halted the fighting.

The al-Jaili refinery sits some 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Khartoum, the capital. The refinery has been subject to previous attacks as the RSF has claimed control of the facility since April 2023, as their forces had been guarding it. Local Sudanese media report the RSF also surrounded the refinery with fields of landmines to slow any advance.

But the facility, capable of handling 100,000 barrels of oil a day, remained broadly intact until Thursday (January 23, 2025).

An attack on Thursday (January 23, 2025) at the oil field set fires across the complex, according to satellite data from NASA satellites that track wildfires worldwide.

Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC on Friday (January 24, 2025) for the AP showed vast areas of the refinery ablaze. The images, shot just after 12:00 GMT, showed flames shooting up into the sky in several spots. Oil tanks at the facility stood burned, covered in soot.