Policy

On 9 July 2011, the Republic of South Sudan became an independent state. South Sudan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In September 2011, a South Sudan representative informed States Parties that “we do intend to join” the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but cautioned that it will not be a swift process as there are “many pressing issues to address not least to capacity build all departments of government and the judiciary.”[1] In a meeting with representatives of the CMC, the South Sudan delegate said that the government would address its accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions after it joined the Mine Ban Treaty.[2]

South Sudan acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 11 November 2011.

South Sudan attended the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011. It did not attend intersessional meetings of the convention held in Geneva in April 2012.

In September 2011, South Sudan said that as a victim of the use of cluster munitions, “we call on all parties in the region to use their influence to ensure that cluster munitions not be used along with landmines by the parties who oppose our new state.”[3]

South Sudan is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, Transfer, Stockpiling, Use

The Monitor has no indications of any past production, export, use, or stockpiling of cluster munitions by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). In September 2011, South Sudan stated that it “is not a user or producer of cluster munitions.”[4] A government official informed the CMC that South Sudan does not stockpile cluster munitions.[5]

Numerous independent sources have documented the presence of cluster munitions remnants that indicate that the armed forces of the Republic of Sudan sporadically used air-dropped cluster munitions in southern Sudan between 1995 and 2000.[6]

There were two new allegations of cluster munition use by the armed forces of Sudan in the first half of 2012 in Southern Kordofan, a state bordering South Sudan that has seen fighting by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army North (SPLM-N) and the Sudan Armed Forces since June 2011. (See separate entry on Republic of Sudan for more details).