Amnesty International reported that French-manufactured military technology incorporated into armored personnel carriers (APCs) made by the United Arab Emirates is being used in Sudan’s civil war, a likely violation of a United Nations arms embargo.
In a report posted online Thursday, the human rights organization said it first became aware of the armored vehicles’ presence in Sudan in July, when another study revealed what the group described as “a constant flow of weapons into the country” from several nations, including China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, the UAE and Yemen.
The APCs were part of the flow of weapons that in some cases were taken to Darfur, the scene of heavy fighting in western Sudan.
Amnesty International said additional research showed the APCs include sophisticated French-designed and manufactured reactive defense systems. The report said the vehicles are in use by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.
The conflict broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary fighters after relations broke down between military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The two generals are former allies who together orchestrated an October 2021 coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.
Amnesty International said the APCs are manufactured by the UAE company Edge Group and are equipped with the French Galix reactive defense system. Amnesty identified the systems in pictures posted on social media after APCs were captured or destroyed by the Sudanese army.
The Galix technology is a defense system for land vehicles that release counter measures — decoys, smoke and projectiles — when close-range threats are encountered.
In a statement, Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said any use of the French-made weapons technology in Darfur would be a clear breech of the U.N. arms embargo on Sudan. She called on France to ensure the makers of the defense systems immediately stop the supply to UAE manufacturers.
Callamard called on all nations to “immediately cease direct and indirect supplies of all arms and ammunition to the warring parties in Sudan. They must respect and enforce the U.N. Security Council’s arms embargo regime on Darfur before even more civilians’ lives are lost. ”
The U.N. arms embargo is part of a series of sanctions that include asset freezes and travel bans imposed against Sudan for systematic human rights abuses by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces against the people of Darfur.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
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