A new report from Amnesty International has found that weapons and military hardware from Russia, China, Turkey and the UAE are being imported in large quantities into Sudan and diverted to Darfur despite a mandatory United Nations Security Council (UNSC) arms embargo from 2004.
“Nearly all neighbouring countries are used by various armed groups and states as supply lines to transfer weapons into and around Sudan,” according to the report.
Amnesty researchers also identified small arms and ammunition recently manufactured and transferred from countries such as Serbia, Yemen and China being used on the battlefield by various parties in the conflict that tore through the country when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their former security partners the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023.
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“The most concerning aspect of the findings is that the UN embargo on Darfur has failed to protect civilians in a region that has been plagued by violent conflicts for more than twenty years,” says Abdullahi Hassan, Amnesty International’s Sudan and Somalia researcher, and co-author of the report.
“In fact, our research shows that after weapons reach Khartoum or elsewhere in Sudan, diversion of these weapons to armed groups known for the involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity is extremely easy and that there is virtually no control over the movement of these weapons into the battlefield, including in Darfur.”
The team analysed 1,900 shipment records and around 2,000 verified photos and videos, as well as interviewing 17 regional arms and Sudan experts.
According to their findings, Russia is an important supplier of weapons in Sudan with their Tigr Designated Marksman Rifles (DMR) “ubiquitous in the ranks of both the RSF and the SAF, almost everywhere in Sudan”.
At least 1,500 Tigr DMRs were exported to Sudan after 2019, according to shipment-level trade data.
The UAE is also highlighted as a prominent supplier of weapons and armoured vehicles to the RSF.
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The UAE is a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), along with Turkey, while China and Serbia are state parties to the treaty.
Evidence presented by the report shows that their legal obligation to prohibit the transfer of arms that will violate arms embargoes and eradicate illicit arms trade has been ignored.
Shipment data suggests that declared arms imports into Sudan dried up after the outbreak of a full-scale war but the weaponry is on display in the hands of fighters.
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“There is a significant decrease in the number of shipments of small arms to Sudan after 15 April [2023], but it is difficult to determine whether this reflects an actual drop in exports, or it is a data coverage issue,” says Mr Hassan.
“Several non-exclusive explanations include the reluctance of customs administrations to report on trade in weapons and military equipment after the outbreak of the conflict or foreign exporters being worried about reputational and legal risks.
“In addition, countries that have been found to actively support one side of the conflict will supply weapons to their local allies outside of legal, reported channels and would therefore not appear in the trade data.”
The little transparency that existed before the war may be gone but the damage of these weapons is undeniable.
An extensive report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) published on Monday shows the scale of civilian casualties from gunshot wounds as well as blast and shelling injuries in health facilities in Sudan’s conflict zones.
In Al Nao hospital in the major city of Omdurman, 53% of over 6,700 patients admitted between mid-August 2023 and the end of April 2024 were treated for gunshot wounds, and 42% were injured by shrapnel.
In March alone, 62% of consultations were from gunshot injuries.
In Darfur, gun violence is even more extreme.
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The Janjaweed militias who rose to notoriety in the 2003 genocide – instigating the futile UN arms embargo – now operate with complete impunity under the umbrella of the RSF.
On the border of Chad and Sudan, MSF staff recorded a 20-fold increase in mortality rates of communities fleeing West Darfur to Ourang camp since April 2023.
Mostly men who were killed by firearms in bouts of ethnic violence (82%).
The report says “among the wounded were 62 women admitted for gunshot wounds and injuries from beatings.”
And of the 135 survivors of sexual violence, mostly women and girls, treated by the MSF team between July and December 2023 in Chadian refugee camps, 90% were abused by armed perpetrators.
The influx of arms into Sudan, both declared and illicit, has been ongoing for decades.
In the chaos of war, the data has gone dark but the damage from the armed violence ravaging the country is in full view.
The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has invited SAF and RSF to a new round of ceasefire talks in Switzerland starting 14 August.
It comes after several failed mediation attempts that have not secured a humanitarian access mechanism or any lulls in fighting.
