HRW calls for expansion of Sudan arms embargo

According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published yesterday, “warring parties in Sudan have access to and are using modern, foreign-made weapons and equipment” which were acquired after the war broke out on April 15, 2023.

“In one case, lot number markings (alphanumeric codes assigned to a specific manufacturing batch) clearly indicate that the ammunition was manufactured in 2023,” noted the report Fanning the Flames: Sudanese Warring Parties’ Access To New Foreign-Made Weapons and Equipment. “The emergence of visuals of equipment that Sudanese actors were not previously known to have, or that began to be used more frequently months after the outbreak of the conflict, suggests that the warring parties acquired some of these weapons after April 2023.”

HRW research showed that some of the modern equipment is being used in Darfur, despite the arms embargo established by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2004. The evidence mainly comes from photographs and videos taken by fighters and civilians and posted on social media.

“Other apparently newly acquired foreign-made equipment, including armed drones, truck-mounted multi-barrel rocket launchers, drone jammers, and anti-tank guided missiles,” has also been documented beyond Darfur, in the Kordofan region and Khartoum area.

Specific incidents showed modern equipment being used in reportedly unlawful attacks. “Using drones, in at least two incidents, Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) affiliated fighters killed and injured unarmed people in civilian clothes in the Khartoum area in January and March.”

HRW noted that their findings highlight the “inadequacy of an arms embargo exclusively focused on Darfur, not Sudan as a whole,” calling for further investigation into how the warring parties acquired the weapons and equipment, and when exactly these acquisitions took place.

Research showed that SAF-affiliated fighters possess Iranian Mohajer-6 attack drones, Chinese drone jammers, and commercially made drones normally available to civilians. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has reportedly been using 9M133M Kornet anti-tank guided missiles, an attack drone which drops Serbian-made Yugoimport 120mm thermobaric munitions, one-way attack drones, commercially made drones normally available to civilians but retrofitted to drop mortar munitions, Chinese mortar munition manufactured in 2023, and Chinese drone jammers. The presence of Yugoimport munitions allegedly “suggests potential contemporary supply of weapons from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the RSF.”

On July 25, an Amnesty International briefing revealed that recently manufactured weapons and ammunition from countries including China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen, were being imported in large quantities into Sudan. Radio Dabanga previously reported on the role of Iranian drones in battles between the SAF and the RSF.

At the time, Amnesty International insisted that the UNSC urgently expand its current arms embargo on Darfur to the rest of Sudan.

“There is a large and growing body of credible evidence documenting how, during their conduct in the conflict, the warring parties have committed widespread war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious human rights violations, including in the Darfur region. For example, HRW, among others, has documented devastating ethnic cleansing in West Darfur,” noted the report.

HRW demanded the expansion of the arms embargo to the rest of Sudan to “secure the mechanisms necessary to conduct such investigations, hold violators to account, and prevent further acquisition of equipment that would likely be used to unlawfully harm civilians and perpetuate war crimes.”

A report by the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission, published on Friday, accused Sudan’s warring parties of “an appalling range of harrowing human rights violations and international crimes…” and called for “an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians be deployed without delay.”

You can read the full report here.