Sudan: three years on, UK government urged to halt "shameful" arms sales

The three-year-long brutal conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their respective allies continues to intensify and to inflict devastating harm on civilians, Amnesty International said today, ahead of the anniversary of the outbreak of the war on the 15th April 2023.

Since the armed conflict erupted, Amnesty has documented systemic attacks on civilians by both the RSF and the SAF. The violations against civilians include deliberate and unlawful killings, rape, gang-rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence, torture, enforced disappearances and widespread looting, all of which amount to war crimes and some of which may also amount to crimes against humanity. The ongoing fighting in the Kordofan region between SAF and RSF is also taking a heavy toll on civilians. El Obeid in North Kordofan is currently under RSF siege.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

“Time and again, the parties to the conflict have deliberately and indiscriminately targeted civilians, notably during and after their takeover of towns and cities throughout the country. They continue to block humanitarian aid from reaching those desperately in need.

“Minimal, half-hearted and lackluster responses from the African Union, the UN Security Council and other international and regional actors have only emboldened the perpetrators to continue carrying out these attacks. The world must now urgently prioritise the protection of civilians in Sudan.

“The Sudan conflict is not forgotten; it is being deliberately ignored and neglected. Behind this neglect are countless human beings undergoing untold suffering as the world looks the other way. This has to stop.

“The window for avoiding a repeat of El Fasher in El Obeid and in other parts of the Kordofan region is fast closing. Unless fast and coordinated diplomatic pressure is applied on both parties, then a repeat of the mass atrocities committed in El Fasher is inevitable.

“Since the conflict erupted, there has been no respite for civilians, they find themselves trapped in a relentless cycle of death, displacement and hunger.”

In response to reports that UK military equipment, including engines for military vehicles and small arms training simulators, are being used by Rapid Support Forces accused of genocide in Sudan, Oliver Feeley-Sprague, Amnesty International UK’s Military, Security and Policing Director, said:

“It should shame us all that the RSF have inflicted murder, rape and torture on civilians with weapons made in the UK. The UAE has been a known hub for arms diversion for years and the UK government has long been aware of weapons being routed through the Emirates to conflict zones like Sudan and Libya.

“Yet even as reports of horrific atrocities emerged, the UK has continued to cash in on arms sales. Today, the UK government is risking complicity in some of the grimmest atrocities of the 21st century, just as is the case in Gaza.

“The Government must immediately suspend all arms to the UAE and crucially take immediate action to stop this from happening again.”

Amnesty also urges the UN Security Council to extend the existing arms embargo beyond Darfur to the rest of Sudan.

“Unless the flow and supply of arms to Sudan is cut, civilians will continue to suffer under daily bombardments. It is time for the UN Security Council to extend the Darfur arms embargo to the rest of Sudan, and to hold to account all countries and entities that have violated it,” said Agnès Callamard.