Had Uganda helped South Sudan violate the embargo imposed by the European Union on weapons? This is at least what a report published by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) this week seems to claim.   

According to the report published by Reuters, Uganda played a key role in restocking the belligerents of the civil war which broke out in the country in 2013, two years after the independence. While the European Union extended the embargo on weapons it imposed on Sudan in 1994 to the young state, experts indicate that Juba requested Uganda’s help to send weapons from Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia to South Sudan.

"We have a paper trail from point of manufacture, through export to Uganda, through diversion to South Sudan, and to the recovery of the weapons on the battlefield", declared James Bevan, director of CAR, adding that the said weapons arrived in Kampala between 2014 and 2015.

The report also indicates that Sudan supported the rebels of Riek Machar opposed to Salva Kiir with weapons (Chinese notably), thus supplying more than hundred weapons and 200,000 ammunition, with Uganda’s help, in a conflict which has already produced more than 4 million refugees and displaced as well as 300,000 deaths.  

For the time being, Uganda and Sudan, having also been key actors of the peace agreement signed by the parties in September, made no comment about the claims.

CAR is a UK based investigation group founded in 2011. It is also specialized in the monitoring of the supply of conventional weapons, ammunition and military-related equipment in conflict zones.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou