Ian Lundin the company’s family shareholder (left) and Alex Schneiter, the CEO (right) were charged with involvement in war crimes committed by the Sudanese regime in Unity State oilfield.| Courtesy file photo.

A court in Sweden has indicted two representatives of an oil firm for involvement in grave war crimes committed by the Sudanese government in the Block 5A oilfield of Unity State.

On Thursday, two of the senior members of the oil firm were accused of having connived with the Sudanese regime to orchestrate ruthless military raids characterized by lack of respect for International Humanitarian law between 1999 and 2003.

The energy consortium had started oil exploration in Block 5A, an area about 30,000 square kilometers.

Lundin Oil is accused of having encouraged a military offensive by the Sudanese regime to take control of Block 5A in breach of a local peace deal that gave

”In our view, the investigation shows that the military and its allied militia systematically attacked civilians or carried out indiscriminate attacks. For example, aerial bombardments from transport planes, shooting civilians from helicopter gunships, abducting and plundering civilians and burning entire villages and their crops so that people did not have anything to live by. Consequently, many civilians were killed, injured and displaced from Block 5A,” says Head of the Investigation, Public Prosecutor Henrik Attorps during the hearing.

This led to a series of fighting that lasted until Lundin Oil left the area during 2003.

Ian Lundin, who is the controlling family shareholder and former chief executive Alex Schneiter could face up to a life sentence if found guilty.

The prosecutors in the case are also aiming to confiscate about $160m, an equivalent value of profit made by the company on the sale of business in 2003.

Rights groups say the start of oil exploration by the consortium at the end of 1990s has sparked a civil war that killed thousands and displaced close to 200,000 civilians in what is now the Republic of South Sudan.