Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Sudan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1]

In September 2012, Sudan informed States Parties that it has “renewed” its commitment to the convention and has “respected” the ban on cluster munitions. Its representative did not indicate the precise status of its position on joining the convention.[2]

In April 2012, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that “consultations are going on in Sudan and countries of the region to discuss accession” to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and further “discussions with legislative bodies and authorities” were necessary. The official stated that Sudan “expresses its full support to the convention and promises to accede once its consultations are completed.”[3] Sudan has expressed its intent to join the ban convention since 2010.[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 after logistical and national measures had been completed.[6]

Sudan has continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has attended every meeting of States Parties of the convention as an observer, including the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012 where it made a statement on universalization. Sudan attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011 and 2012 but was not present at those held in April 2013. Sudan did not attend a regional seminar on the convention in Lomé, Togo in May 2013.

Sudan is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Sudan signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) on 10 April 1981 but has never ratified, so it is not party to the CCW.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Monitor has no indications of any past production or export of cluster munitions by Sudan. However, it appears that in the past Sudan imported cluster munitions from a number of countries.

Information on Sudan’s stockpile of cluster munitions is not publicly available. Jane’s Information Group reports that KMG-U dispensers, which deploy submunitions, are in service with the country’s air force.[7] 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.[8]

Use

Sudan’s military has repeatedly denied using and stockpiling cluster munitions, but recent allegations of use and contamination of cluster munition remnants indicate that it has used and may still stockpile the weapons.[9] In May 2012, an unnamed Sudanese military spokesperson reportedly said, “We don’t use cluster munitions in South Kordofan, we have no ties to such weapons. There is no need to use these kind of weapons to begin with, the fighting is in open space, the renegades don’t have concrete fortifications.”[10]

Cluster Munition Monitor 2012 reported two allegations of cluster munition use by the armed forces of Sudan in the first half of 2012 in Troji and Ongolo in Southern Kordofan, a state bordering South Sudan that has seen fighting between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army North (SPLM-N) and the Sudan Armed Forces since June 2011.

On 1 March 2012, an independent journalist found dud explosive submunitions in the town of Troji that Human Rights Watch (HRW) identified as Chinese Type-81 dual purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM).[11] Local residents said that the government of Sudan had attacked Troji with cluster munitions on 29 February 2012 one day after the SPLM-N took control of the town. The Monitor was not able to independently confirm when the cluster munitions were used or by whom.

On 24 May 2012, The Independent newspaper in the United Kingdom published photos of a failed cluster munition in the settlement of Ongolo that residents said had been dropped from a government aircraft on 15 April 2012.[12] HRW identified the weapon as a Soviet-made RBK-500 cluster bomb containing AO-2.5RT explosive submunitions.[13] Again, the Monitor was not able to independently confirm definitively the new use of cluster munitions or by whom.

The incidents resulted in increased international attention, including calls by the CMC and others for Sudan to investigate the allegations, but Sudanese officials offered denials in a number of venues.[14] At the intersessional meetings of the convention in April 2012, its representative stated, “Sudan is not a producing country and does not own stockpilings, [sic] and did not use it before, neither in the far past, nor the near one. So any accusations to [sic] my country in this field are groundless.”[15]

A network of citizen journalists, Nuba Reports, reported that on 18 April 2013 at 10:20 in the morning two cluster bombs were dropped from aircraft on the village of Lado in Southern Kordofan. According to the report “some of the internal explosives in the cluster bombs did not explode” and were scattered in the village.[16] The Monitor has not been able independently to confirm this report. 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.[17] 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.[18]