South Sudan: New Report Links Arms Trading, South Sudan Conflict
By Gabe Joselow,
13 May 2014
A report released by the Small Arms Survey documents evidence Sudan has been
the primary supplier of mostly Chinese-made weapons to insurgent groups
going back to conflicts surrounding South Sudan's eventual independence in
2011.
Report co-author Jonah Leff said those actions have helped supply armed
groups involved in current fighting between South Sudan's government and
rebel forces.
"A lot of the weapons that are circulating with the rebels, but also with
the tribal militias such as the White Army and the Nuer youth, originate in
Sudan," said Leff. "So a couple of years ago there were examples of Sudan
arming various rebel groups that were then supplying these weapons on to
tribal militias, and we have seen a number of these popping up."
Simmering dispute
The White Army is an informal militia from the ethnic Nuer community that
has supported rebel leader Riek Machar, also a Nuer.
A political dispute between Machar and President Salva Kiir, a Dinka,
erupted in violence in December, dividing the armed forces along ethnic
lines.
Leff said both sides of the conflict appear to be equally well-armed, as
they originated from the same army. The question, he said, is how rebels
have been able to re-supply ammunition.
"There have been ongoing battles since the middle of December, and there is
no way they would have had sufficient quantities, stockpiles of ammunition
to sustain that fighting," she said.
Chinese, Iranian arms
Leff said Sudan still could be supplying group's linked to Machar, but he
said getting access to equipment seized from the rebels is a challenge.
The report finds the majority of weapons, such as assault rifles and
rocket-propelled grenade launchers imported by Sudan, are made in China,
with a percentage coming from Iran. Sudan also is increasingly manufacturing
its own weapons.
Sudan is under an arms embargo applied only to the Darfur region to limit
supplies of weapons to government-aligned militia. A previous Small Arms
Survey report in 2012 noted that despite the ban, all sides in that conflict
"continued to gain access to military resources."
Meanwhile, the report says that tracing arms flows is becoming more
difficult as serial numbers and other identifying marks are being
deliberately scraped off of weapons found in conflict zones.