Weapons still flock to South Sudan

Weapons continue to flow to South Sudan despite the embargo. This is revealed by a report of the British NGO Conflict Armament Research released Thursday.

At the end of a four-year survey, Conflict Armament Research (CAR) documented how countries in the region, particularly Uganda, had bypassed embargos to supply arms to the protagonists of the war in South Sudan.

Since July 2018, the UN Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan. The European Union had banned its member states as early as 1994 not to sell arms directly to Sudan. It amended the embargo to include South Sudan in its independence in 2011.

The CAR report explains that despite these bans, the government army – the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – has never been in the process of arming. And has continued to receive military equipment provided by Uganda. And sometimes from Europe or the United States.

South Sudan has been in a civil war since December 2013. A war that left more than 380,000 dead.