Five-Year Review: Non-signatory Sudan has expressed its support for the convention and its interest in joining, but has indicated that accession is dependent on the actions of neighboring states regarding the convention. Sudan has participated as an observer in nearly all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, most recently in September 2014.

There is no evidence to indicate that Sudan has produced or exported cluster munitions, but it has imported and continues to stockpile them. Sudan has used air-dropped cluster bombs several times in Southern Kordofan province since 2012, most recently in May 2015. Sudanese government and military spokespersons deny possessing and using cluster munitions. On 29 June 2015, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that called on the government of Sudan to immediately investigate the use of cluster munitions.

Policy

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

Sudan has expressed its support for the convention and interest in acceding, but has not taken any steps toward accession. In April 2014, a government representative said that Sudan was willing to join under certain geopolitical circumstances, namely “if bordering countries follow suit.”[1] Previously, in 2012, an official said that the government of Sudan was consulting internally as well as with neighboring countries on the matter of joining the convention.[2]

Sudan has expressed its intent to join the ban convention since 2010.[3] In September 2012, Sudan expressed its commitment to the convention and stated that it has “respected” the ban on cluster munitions.[4]

Sudan participated in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined the consensus adoption of the convention at the conclusion of the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008.[5] At the convention’s Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008, Sudan expressed its intent to sign as soon as possible, after completing logistical and other measures.[6]

Sudan engages in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions despite not joining. It has participated as an observer in nearly all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in San Jose, Costa Rica in September 2014.[7] Sudan has attended several intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva, most recently in June 2015.[8]

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

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Monitor has no indications of any past production or export of cluster munitions by Sudan. A Sudan Mine Action Office representative reiterated in April 2014 that Sudan doesn’t produce, stockpile, or use cluster munitions.[9]

Sudan, however, appears to have imported cluster munitions in the past and recent reports of use, arms stocks, and contamination and clearance of cluster munition remnants indicate that Sudan still stockpiles cluster munitions and used them as recently as May 2015.

A February 2014 report by a UN Panel of Experts published photographs taken in March 2013 that showed several Soviet-made RBK-500 cluster bombs lying in the open alongside other weapons at El Fasher airport in North Darfur state, where Sudan’s armed forces maintain a forward operating base. The report stated that the “Panel has evidence of previous use of cluster munitions in Darfur. Render-safe operations have taken place on such munitions as recently as 2012. The Panel does not, however, have evidence of the exact dates of use of the munitions. It continues to investigate.” The panel reported that it “observed fluctuating stock levels at the ammunition storage area, indicative of the routine use (for either operations or training) and resupply of ammunition into Darfur by the national armed forces.”[10]

Jane’s Information Group also reports that KMGU dispensers, which deploy submunitions, are in service with the country’s air force.[11] 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.[12]

Use

Sudan’s military has repeatedly denied using cluster munitions, but recent reports show Sudan has used air-dropped cluster bombs in Southern Kordofan province several times since 2012.[13] Bordering South Sudan, the state has experienced fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army North (SPLM-N) since mid-2011, when South Sudan became an independent state.

In June 2015, Nuba Reports—a network of local journalists in the Nuba Mountains where Southern Kordofan is located—published video showing the remnants of RBK-500 cluster bombs containing AO-2.5 RT submunitions that it said was filmed in Kauda after a government attack on the town on 27 May 2015. It described Kauda as “the rebel capital” as the base of the SPLM-N, the political opposition movement in Southern Kordofan. According to Nuba Reports, the Sudanese Air Force dropped four cluster bombs on Kauda at around 7:30 in the morning, but none exploded on impact, leaving failed munitions and unexploded submunitions. Two days later SPLM-N soldiers removed and “rolled the bomblets into a hole, covered them with dirt, and marked them with thorn bushes.”[14]

In May 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report detailing evidence indicating the Sudanese Air Force was responsible for two cluster munition attacks in Southern Kordofan, in February and March 2015, that used the same type of cluster munition. Local witnesses informed HRW that government aircraft dropped two bombs on Tongoli village in Delami county on 6 March 2015, and four bombs on Rajeefi village in Um Durein county in late February 2015.[15] HRW documented remnants of the RBK-500 cluster bombs containing AO-2.5 RT submunitions, which also failed to function as intended.

In various media outlets, Sudanese Army spokesperson, Col. Alswarmy Khalid, denied responsibility for the cluster munition use and described the HRW research as “fabricated and baseless.”[16] Geneva-based representatives denied the cluster munition use in a May 2015 meeting with CMC representatives.[17]

The use of cluster munitions in Sudan in the first half of 2015 has received strong media coverage and public outcry, while at least 23 states have expressed concern at or condemned the cluster munition use in national statements or resolution votes.[18]

On 29 June 2015, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a United Kingdom (UK)-led resolution that—for the first time on Sudan—contained specific language on cluster munitions “expressing concern at evidence, collected by AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), of two air-delivered cluster bombs near Kirigiyati, North Darfur, taking note that UNAMID disposed of them safely, and reiterating the Secretary-General’s call on the Government of Sudan to immediately investigate the use of cluster munitions.”[19]

After the resolution was adopted, Sudan’s representative at the UN Security Council session objected “strenuously” to the paragraph, and expressed concern at “the assertion in the Secretary-General’s report that UNAMID has collected evidence of two cluster bombs.” Sudan argued that because the UN Secretary-General is conducting an inquiry into the incident “it is therefore unacceptable” for the resolution to include it. The representative did not indicate if Sudan would undertake its own investigation into the use of cluster munitions.[20]

At the convention’s intersessional meetings in June 2015, more than two-dozen states expressed concern at or condemned new use of cluster munitions, including nine that specifically referenced the evidence of new use in Sudan.[21] The UN, the ICRC, and the CMC also condemned the use of cluster munitions.

Previous Use

Nuba Reports alleged that two cluster bombs were dropped from government aircraft on the village of Lado in Southern Kordofan on 18 April 2013, but Cluster Munition Monitor has not been able to independently confirm the report.[22]

In May 2012, The Independent newspaper in the UK published photos showing a failed RBK-500 cluster bomb containing unexploded AO-2.5RT submunitions in Ongolo, Southern Kordofan that residents said a government aircraft dropped on the settlement on 15 April 2012.[23]

An independent journalist found unexploded submunitions in the village Troji identified as Chinese Type-81 dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) that local residents said were used by the government of Sudan in an attack on the town on 29 February 2012.[24] The Monitor was not able to independently confirm when the cluster munitions were used or by whom.

These 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 various venues.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27]