Arms and Ammunition in Sudan and South Sudan

Small Arms Survey published in May 2014 a lengthy report titled "Following the Thread: Arms and Ammunition Tracing in Sudan and South Sudan" by Jonah Leff, director of operations at UK-based Conflict Armament Research, and Emile LeBrun, consultant on small arms and light weapons issues.

The study concludes that older weapons from the eastern bloc and Iran, as well as newer weapons from China, predominate among all armed actors in Sudan and South Sudan.  Sudanese security forces are the primary source of weapons to non-state armed groups in Sudan and South Sudan through deliberate arming and battlefield capture.  Khartoum's deliberate supplying of Chinese manufactured arms and ammunition to southern insurgents took place in apparent violation of end-user agreements with the government of China.

As Sudan has bolstered its arms manufacturing sector since the 1990s, Sudanese military equipment has increasingly appeared on the battlefield and in the hands of non-state armed groups.   Sudanese-manufactured ammunition proliferates not only in Sudan and South Sudan, but also in other conflict zones such as the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and Syria.

The government of South Sudan and southern insurgent groups have supplied arms and ammunition to civilians in South Sudan.  South Sudanese armed groups are in possession of an increasing number of weapons whose factory marks and serial numbers have been removed, a tactic designed to undermine identification and tracing.

Confidential UN Report Warns of Systematic Diversion of Somali Arms

Reuters obtained access to a 14-page confidential report to the UN Security Council prepared by the UN Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group.  The 13 February 2014 article titled "Exclusive - U.N. Monitors Warn of 'Systematic' Somali Arms Diversion" by Louis Charbonneau charges high-level and systematic abuses in weapons and ammunition management distribution by the Somali government.

The UN report said the Somali government is distributing arms to "parallel security forces and clan militias that are not part of the Somali security forces," identifing arms to Abgaal and Habar Gedir sub-clans in particular.  According to the report, arms also went to al-Shabaab leader Sheikh Yusuf Isse.  The report concluded that the government's security policy is being captured by clan and sub-clan politics.