Gao Yang and their plane did not land in Malakal, but instead descended more than two hundred kilometers north of Malakal where Morgan's oil field was located.
Malakal city was already in chaos, with sporadic gunfights erupting within the city area, and as for outside the city, a major war was on the brink of breaking out. Although the situation within Malakal city was still within controllable limits, Gao Yang and his team could have landed there, but flying directly to Morgan's oil field was far more convenient than transferring from Malakal.
Malakal is the capital of South Sudan's State of South Nile, and across the border lies the Northern Sudan's State of South Kordofan, whereas Morgan's oil field is located in the Abyei Area, a region whose ownership has never been clearly resolved between the two countries.
In the 1980s, the American Chevron Corporation discovered several large oil fields in the Abyei Area, most of which were located in the southern part of Sudan.