Five-Year Review: Non-signatory South Sudan has expressed its support for the convention since it became an independent state on 9 July 2011, stating in September 2014 that it is actively working to accede. South Sudan has participated as an observer in several of the convention’s meetings, most recently in 2014.

South Sudan stated that it has not used or produced cluster munitions and has denied stockpiling them. Remnants of air-dropped cluster bombs were discovered outside the town of Bor in February 2014, after fighting between government forces and opposition fighters. South Sudan denied responsibility for this use of cluster munitions, as did Uganda, which was providing air-support to the government of South Sudan at the time.

Policy

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

South Sudan has expressed its support for the convention and intent to join, most recently in September 2014, when a government official informed States Parties that “preparations are at an advanced stage for South Sudan to join the convention to ban cluster bombs.”[1] Previously, in May 2013, South Sudan informed a regional seminar that it is committed to acceding to the convention, but had been unable to accede due to competing priorities.[2] Similarly, in September 2011, South Sudan expressed its intent to join the convention, but stated it had “many pressing issues to address.”[3]

South Sudan has engaged in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since it became an independent state on 9 July 2011.

South Sudan participated as an observer at three of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, most recently the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica, September 2014, where it made a statement.[4] South Sudan attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva once, in April 2013. South Sudan has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Kampala, Uganda in May 2015.[5]

It joined the Mine Ban Treaty on 11 November 2011 through a rarely used process of “succession.”[6] It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

South Sudan stated in September 2011 that it does not stockpile cluster munitions.[7] At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2014, South Sudan again stated that it “does not produce nor possess any cluster munitions” and declared “we do not intend to acquire or use cluster bombs.”[8] The Monitor has seen no evidence to indicate past production, export, or stockpiling of cluster munitions by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) prior to the country becoming an independent state.

Use

In February 2014, evidence emerged showing that cluster munitions had been used in the period since mid-December 2013 outside of Bor, the capital of Jonglei State, during fighting between opposition forces loyal to South Sudan’s former Vice President Riek Machar and Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) government forces backed with air-support provided by Uganda, a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In the week of 7 February 2014, UN mine action experts found the remnants of at least eight RBK-250-275 cluster bombs and an unknown quantity of intact AO-1SCh submunitions by a major road 16 kilometers south of Bor in an area not known to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants prior to mid-December 2013.[9]

Both South Sudanese and Ugandan forces are believed to possess fixed wing aircraft and helicopters capable of delivering these types of cluster munitions, while South Sudan’s opposition forces are not believed to possess any means of delivery.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the UN’s discovery of the cluster bomb remnants near Bor and condemned the new use of cluster munitions without indicating who the UN believed was responsible for the use or if an investigation would be undertaken.[10] The CMC condemned the use of cluster munitions and called for an immediate investigation.[11]

Responses to new cluster munition use

South Sudan denied using cluster munitions in the conflict and also denied Ugandan use of the weapons.[12] In March 2014, a South Sudan government army spokesman said, “South Sudan has no capacity to use or stockpile cluster bombs; neither do the Ugandan forces who have been assisting with security in South Sudan…The war is not intensive enough to require the use of cluster bombs.”[13] At the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2014, South Sudan did not accept responsibility for the cluster munition use, which it described it as an “unfortunate incident” and pledged not to use cluster munitions. It stated that an investigation conducted jointly with UN officials had not been able to determine who had used the cluster munitions found in Bor.[14]

At the same meeting, Uganda denied that its armed forces possess cluster bombs and stated that Uganda did not use the weapons in South Sudan.[15] Previously, in May 2014, the Chief of the Ugandan Defense Forces, General Edward Katumba Wamala, denied that Uganda used cluster munitions in South Sudan and informed media that as a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Uganda has banned any use of cluster munitions by its army, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF).[16] The commander of Ugandan forces in South Sudan, Brig. Muhanga Kayanja, acknowledged in February 2014 that his forces used helicopters to provide close air-support to the government’s ground troops, but denied using cluster bombs, or any bombs, in the fighting.[17]

The use of cluster munitions in South Sudan received strong media coverage as well as public outcry and condemnations. Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wylbur C. Simuusa, condemned the cluster munition use in South Sudan in his capacity as president of the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties, as did Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Børge Brende, and Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Margot Wallström.[18]

By 31 July 2015, at least 30 countries had expressed concern at or condemned the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan.[19] States used various fora to make these statements, including:

• The convention’s intersessional meetings held in June 2015 and April 2014;[20]
• The UN General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2014;[21] and
• The convention’s Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2014.[22]

On 27 May 2014, UN Security Council members unanimously adopted a resolution on South Sudan that noted “with serious concern reports of the indiscriminate use of cluster munitions” in Jonglei State and urged “all parties to refrain from similar such use in the future.”[23]

Previous use

No other use of cluster munitions has been documented in South Sudan since it became independent in 2011. Prior to that, numerous independent sources documented cluster munition remnants including unexploded submunitions in what is now South Sudan, indicating that the armed forces of Sudan sporadically used air-dropped cluster munitions there between 1995 and 2000.[24]