Juba: South Sudan rebels ordered oil companies to evacuate staff from a northeastern battleground state Tuesday, but claims they were advancing to take key oil fields were dismissed by the government as "lies".
"We have decided to take control of the oil fields," rebel spokesman James Gadet Dak said, warning oil companies to "shut down their operations and evacuate their staff immediately" in the Upper Nile state.
The country`s 17-month-long war broke out in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings across the country.
South Sudan, which won independence from Sudan in 2011 to become the world`s youngest nation, once saw 95 percent of the government`s budget come from oil revenues.
But oil production has slumped since war broke out, with many oil fields damaged in the fighting, badly denting the country`s economy.
Dak said rebels wanted to take the oil zones in Upper Nile, including the major field of Palouch, to "deny Salva Kiir from using the oil revenues to perpetuate the war".
They have made similar threats in the past.
Government troops launched an assault in late April, one of the heaviest offensives yet in the civil war, which has cut off over 650,000 from aid and seen gunmen raping, torching towns and looting relief supplies, according to the United Nations and aid agencies.
But rebels have launched a major counter-attack, including an assault on Friday on Malakal, the state capital of Upper Nile and the gateway to the country`s last remaining major oil fields.
Dak said his forces were "in control of Malakal", but Information Minister Michael Makuei said fighting continued in the city.
"Malakal is partly controlled by them and partly controlled by us," Makuei said. "There is fighting inside the town and around it."
The town has swapped hands multiple times in the war and much is already in ruins.
Dak said rebels were advancing on the oil fields at Palouch, claiming to have captured an oil refinery.
Makuei pointed out however that the oil refinery the rebels had celebrated capturing was not yet built, with only a foundation stone laid.
"These allegations that they have taken over the oil areas is not true," Makuei told AFP.
He insisted that the oil fields in Palouch "are functioning as usual", and that the "rebels were lying, as that is what they do".
