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, 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. Please see the separate entry for the Republic of South Sudan in Cluster Munition Monitor 2011.

Policy

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

In November 2010, the General Secretary of Sudan’s Ministry of Defense, Lt. General Abdelrahman Mohamed Zain Awoda, stated that Sudan would like to join the convention, but said it first wanted to “take a collective regional approach” by working with neighbors as “it is important for all countries to accede to the convention.”[1] This is the first time that Sudan has mentioned the positions of other governments as a reason for not joining the convention and it is unclear if this is new policy.[2]

Previously, in August 2010, State Minister to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Dr. Mutrif Siddiq, expressed Sudan’s intent to join the convention by its First Meeting of States Parties in November 2010.[3] In April 2010, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Sudan, General Mohamed Abd-al-Qadir, stated that Sudan was ready to join the convention.[4]

Sudan participated in the Oslo Process that produced the convention and joined the consensus adoption of the convention at the conclusion of the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[5] At the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008, Sudan stated its intent to sign as soon as possible, once logistical and national measures had been completed.[6]

Sudan continued to actively engage in the work of the convention in 2010 and the first half of 2011. It attended the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010, where it made a statement. Sudan participated in the first intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in June 2011.

Sudan is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Sudan signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons on 10 April 1981, but has never ratified the convention or its protocols.

Campaigners have undertaken a number of activities in support of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[7]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In November 2010, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Defense informed the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane that Sudan does not possess any stockpiles of cluster munitions, does not produce the weapon, and has “never used cluster munitions, not even in the wars that have occurred in the south and east of the country and in Darfur.”[8] Previously, in April 2010, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Sudan stated that Sudan does not possess cluster munitions.[9]

The Monitor has no indications of any past production or export of cluster munitions by Sudan. However, it appears that Sudan imported cluster munitions in the past from a number of countries and there is sufficient evidence to indicate that Sudan used cluster munitions in the past. The current status of Sudan’s stockpile is uncertain.

Numerous independent sources have documented the presence of cluster munitions remnants that indicate Sudanese government forces sporadically used air-dropped cluster munitions in southern Sudan between 1995 and 2000, including Chilean-made PM-1 submunitions.[10] 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.[11]

Jane’s Information Group reports that KMG-U dispensers, which deploy submunitions, are in service with the country’s air force.[12] Sudan also possesses Grad, Egyptian-produced Sakr, and Chinese-produced Type-81 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[13]

Cluster munition remnants

Since 2006, Sudan has identified 530 sites covering 57.3km² in 13 states contaminated by cluster munition remnants. As of June 2011, Sudan had reduced the number of uncleared sites to 43 covering 2.9km² in seven states (Central Equatoria, East Equatoria, Kassala, South Kordofan, West Equatoria, and Warrab), of which 28, almost two-thirds, are in Central and Eastern Equatoria states.[14]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 mined areas, and in ammunition storage areas.[15]

Clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas in 2010

The UN Mine Action Office (UNMAO) does not distinguish between clearance of different types of explosive remnants of war (ERW) in its reporting so is unable to confirm how much land was cleared of cluster munition remnants in 2010.[16] The vast majority of clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas is believed to be unexploded ordnance spot clearance.[17]

Casualties

No casualties from cluster munition remnants were identified in Sudan in 2010. However, given that devices are not adequately differentiated, it is possible that unexploded submunition casualties were among those recorded as caused by ERW (26) and unknown explosive items (37), which together made up 94% of all casualties in 2010. As of July 2011, six casualties from cluster munitions had been reported for the year.[18]