Large volumes of international arms are fuelling Sudan’s civil war, says Amnesty International

South Sudanese returnees who fled the violence in Sudan, stand in line as they wait for some water to arrive at the transit area set up by the UNHCR in the Upper Nile State town of Renk, South Sudan, 15 May 2023. According to the United Nations, some 200,000 people have fled the conflict in Sudan between 15 April and 12 May 2023. Around 40.000 are in South Sudan, and about two million people were internally displaced. Leaving behind them the armed conflict between the Sudanese military and the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) militia which started one month ago today, most of the refugees in South Sudan are South Sudanese returnees, part of the some 800,000 who had previously fled the war in South Sudan and who are now returning to a country which is barely out of conflict itself, with tensions still remaining in many areas. EPA-EFE/AMEL PAIN

By Peter Fabricius

25 Jul 2024

The human rights organisation has called on the UN Security Council to properly enforce its ‘completely ineffective’ arms embargo on Darfur and to extend it to the whole of Sudan.

China, Russia, Serbia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen are fuelling the 15-month-old civil war in Sudan by constantly supplying weapons to the belligerents, Amnesty International says in a new report.

The human rights organisation found that weapons sold by these countries – and possibly others – to various parties to the conflict were being used to perpetrate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Sudan.

The report, “New Weapons Fuelling the Sudan Conflict”, also concludes that the existing United Nations Security Council arms embargo on Sudan’s Darfur region – the location of much of the fighting – is “completely ineffective”. It urges the UN to properly enforce the embargo but also extend it to cover the whole of Sudan.

The report documents an investigation which discovered that recently manufactured or recently transferred weapons and ammunition from countries including China, Russia, Serbia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen are being imported in large quantities into Sudan, and then in some cases diverted into Darfur, “often in flagrant breach of the existing Darfur arms embargo”.

“To date, more than 16,650 people have been killed since the escalation in conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. Amnesty International has documented civilian casualties in both indiscriminate strikes and direct attacks on civilians. Some of the international humanitarian law violations by parties to the conflict amount to war crimes. “

The report says more than 11 million people are now estimated to be internally displaced, 7.3 million of them since the start of this war, and millions are at immediate risk of famine.

“The constant flow of arms into Sudan is continuing to cause civilian death and suffering on an immense scale,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty’s senior director for regional human rights impact.

He added that the weapons were being used by combatants accused of international humanitarian and human rights law violations. “We have methodically tracked a range of lethal weapons – including handguns, shotguns and rifles – that are being used in Sudan by warring forces.”

The main belligerents receiving the arms are the SAF led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and its arch enemy, the RSF led by General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.

Muchena said the existing UN arms embargo that currently applies only to Darfur was completely inadequate and must be updated and extended to cover the whole of Sudan. “This is a humanitarian crisis that cannot be ignored.”

Amnesty said that to reach its conclusions it had analysed more than 1,900 shipment records from two different trade data providers, and reviewed open source and digital evidence – including about 2,000 photos and videos – showing recently manufactured or recently imported weapons in Sudan. It said it also interviewed 17 regional arms and Sudan experts between February and March 2024 to corroborate data analysis and investigate weapons supply lines used by various groups.

The report said it had found evidence that advanced drone jammers, mortars and anti-materiel rifles manufactured in China had been used by both sides of the conflict. A variety of recently manufactured armoured personnel carriers from the UAE had been used by the RSF.

Sudan South Sudanese returnees who fled the violence in Sudan, stand in line as they wait for water to arrive at the transit area set up by the UNHCR in the Upper Nile State town of Renk, South Sudan, on 15 May 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Amel Pain)

Hundreds of thousands of blank guns – which cannot fire projectiles – had been exported by Turkish companies to Sudan in recent years, along with millions of blank cartridges. This appears to be a manouevre to avoid arms control. But the report said that Amnesty International believed that “these may be being converted into lethal weapons in Sudan on a large scale, indicating the need for closer scrutiny of this largely unregulated trade.”

Amnesty also found that many guns normally sold for civilian use were being diverted instead to government forces and armed opposition groups. The report cited in particular Russian and Turkish arms companies for exporting such civilian weapons.

“Weapons such as the Tigr designated marksman rifles or Saiga-MK rifles – manufactured by Russia’s Kalashnikov Concern – are normally marketed to civilian gun owners, but have been sold to arms dealers with strong links to the SAF.”

It added that Sarsilmaz, Türkiye’s main small arms manufacturer, supplies the SAF. Smaller Turkish companies – such as Derya Arms, BRG Defense and Dağlıoğlu Silah – had also been exporting Turkish hunting shotguns and rifles to Sudan in recent years.

The report said that a video posted by the RSF on its official X account, reportedly filmed in Nyala in South Darfur on 15 February 2024, showed a RSF soldier equipped with a BRG 55 rifle manufactured by the Turkish company Burgu Metal.

“Amnesty International also uncovered evidence that recently manufactured Chinese mortars have been used in El-Daein in East Darfur, and that recent Chinese small arms are also widely present in other parts of Sudan.

Based on the markings found on modified G3 rifles used by armed groups in Sudan, Amnesty said it had been able to identify small arms recently transferred from Yemen.

The report said it had also found evidence that Serbian Zastava M05E1 assault rifles, potentially recently transferred, were being used in Sudan by a division of the RSF.

It added that the transfers need not have been directly from Serbia, and could have been fr0m other countries. However, it noted that Serbia had ratified the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and therefore had a legal obligation to examine if any weapons it sold would be used to commit genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

Muchena said: “The UN Security Council must urgently expand the arms embargo to the rest of Sudan, and also strengthen its monitoring and verification mechanisms.

“The expansion must effectively monitor and prevent international transfers and illicit diversion of arms to the country, and must cover the widest possible scope of weapons to combat the widespread diversion of shotguns, hunting rifles, blank guns and related ammunition into Sudan.”

The report rebuked the UN Security Council for taking almost a year after the civil war began in April 2023 to adopt a resolution calling for immediate cessation of hostilities and unhindered humanitarian access. “Despite this, fighting continues across the country with no effective measures to end violations or protect civilians,” it read.

“By supplying arms to Sudan, states parties to the Arms Trade Treaty – such as China and Serbia – are violating their legal obligations under articles 6 and 7 of the Treaty, and therefore undermining the legally binding framework which regulates the global arms trade.” These two articles prohibit states from authorising any transfer of arms and ammunition that would violate UN Security Council measures such as arms embargoes, or be used to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, or grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, or violate other international human rights or humanitarian laws.

Russia, Türkiye, Yemen and the UAE have not ratified the Arms Trade Treaty but the Amnesty report makes it clear that they are bound by other international human rights or humanitarian laws or instruments such as the Geneva Conventions and also the UN arms embargo on Darfur.

“Given the grave and ongoing human rights risks, all states and corporate actors must also immediately cease supplies of all arms and ammunition to Sudan, including the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of arms and military materials, including related technologies, parts and components, technical assistance, training, financial or other assistance,” Muchena said.

Read more: MSF report highlights catastrophic toll of Sudan’s conflict on health and wellbeing

“States must also explicitly prohibit the transfer to Sudan of firearms marketed to civilians, which Amnesty International has repeatedly documented in the hands of parties to the conflict,” he added.

Several of the arms companies cited by Amnesty International denied to the organisation that they had sold arms to Sudan.

The Amnesty report said that nearly all of Sudan’s neighbours were being used by various armed groups and states as supply lines to transfer weapons into and around Sudan. It called on those states to stop doing so.

It also called on the African Union to use its influence over member states to stop the arms transfers.

And it said that apart from the obligations of governments to prevent their companies transferring arms to Sudan, the arms companies were themselves obliged not to do so. DM

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