Three unknown assailants seized a Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to an oil company at Balila oil field in West Kordofan as it was on its way from Balila to the Zarga Um-Hadida field.
Witnesses from the area confirmed that the gunmen intercepted the vehicle within a few kilometers of Abu Jabra in West Kordofan.
Two company men were reportedly wounded in the incident, including the driver who was shot while trying to drive off.
Another employee responsible for compensation by the oil field to the local community, identified as Mohammed Abdullah Hadi Dawood, also is said to have tried to resist and was shot in the right thigh.
The two wounded were taken to Mujlad Hospital for treatment.
JEM releases captured soldiers
In another development in the same region, the Sudan rebel group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) on Monday released in West Kordofan two Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) troops on ‘humanitarian grounds’.
The spokesman for JEM, Jibril Adam Bilal, told Radio Dabanga that the head of JEM, Dr Jibril Ibrahim, ordered the release of the captives, Muhanna Abdelrahman Muhanna and Idris Abouda Mohamed. On Monday they were handed over to the advisor of the Amir of the Misseriya tribe in the region, Omda Badawi El Hawari.
“The release of the captives came within in the framework of the reinstatement of communication between JEM and social institutions in Darfur and Kordofan, and in the whole of Sudan, as well as to disprove the lies by the government saying that the armed rebel movements do not have any SAF captives,” Bilal noted.