Background

Under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed on 9 January 2005 by the government of Sudan and the southern-based rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), a referendum on self-determination for the south was held in January 2011. The final result of the referendum, announced by the South Sudan Referendum Commission on 7 February 2011, was a near-unanimous vote for the South's secession from northern Sudan. Southern Sudan became an independent state on 9 July 2011 and is officially called the Republic of South Sudan. Please see the separate entry for the Republic of Sudan in Cluster Munition Monitor 2011.

Policy

The Republic of South Sudan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Monitor is not aware of any statements regarding cluster munitions from officials representing the Republic of South Sudan. In June 2011, the chair of the Southern Sudan Mine Action Authority, Brigadier Jurkuch Barach, said that the government of South Sudan fully intends to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. A UN official informed the CMC in June 2011 that the Convention on Cluster Munitions is one of four international treaties identified by the Southern Sudan Mine Action Authority as a priority for the new government of South Sudan to join.[1]

Production, Transfer, Stockpiling, Use

The Monitor has no indications of any past production, export, use, or stockpiling of cluster munitions by the SPLM/A. 

Numerous independent sources have documented the presence of cluster munitions remnants that indicate that Republic of Sudan forces sporadically used air-dropped cluster munitions, including Chilean-made PM-1 submunitions, in southern Sudan between 1995 and 2000.[2] Landmine Action photographed a Rockeye-type cluster bomb with Chinese-language external markings in Yei in October 2006. Additionally, clearance personnel in Sudan have identified a variety of submunitions, including the Spanish-manufactured HESPIN 21, United States-produced M42 and Mk-118 (Rockeye), and Soviet-manufactured PTAB-1.5.[3]

Cluster munition remnants

Since 2006, 519 sites containing cluster munition remnants have been identified in six states in South Sudan. As of June 2011, the number of uncleared sites had been reduced to 34, of which 28 (more than 80%) are in Central and Eastern Equatoria states.[4]Cluster munition remnants have been found in residential areas, farmland, pasture, rivers and streams, on hillsides, in desert areas, in and around former military barracks, on roads, in minefields, and in ammunition storage areas.[5]

No. of cluster munition contaminated areas in South Sudan as of June 2011[6]

 

Casualties

No casualties from cluster munition remnants were identified in South Sudan in 2010 or in the first half of 2011. However, given that devices are not adequately differentiated in casualty data, it is possible that casualties from cluster munition remnants were among those recorded as caused by explosive remnants of war (44) and unknown explosive items (27), which together made up 87% of all casualties in 2010.[7]

Through July 2011, the UN Mine Action Office (UNMAO) reported a total of 64 casualties from cluster munitions in South Sudan, all of which occurred in 2009 or before.[8] No further details were available.