French-manufactured military technology incorporated into armoured personnel carriers made by the United Arab Emirates is being used on the battlefield in Sudan in what likely constitutes a violation of the UN arms embargo on Darfur, Amnesty International said in a new investigation.
In a briefing published earlier this year, Amnesty International identified armoured personnel carriers (APCs) in various parts of Sudan made in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). New research has shown that these APCs, which are in use by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), include sophisticated French-designed and manufactured reactive defense systems.
Amnesty said the government and French arms companies had a duty to monitor whether the Galix system was then being illegally exported to Sudan after being affixed to the UAE-produced Nimr Ajban vehicles. A UN embargo in place since 2004 bans all weapons transfers to the region of Darfur, and the EU also has a ban on weapons transfers to all of Sudan.
The UAE has been accused of violating the embargo by supplying the RSF with arms and its own forces.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said the French government should stop the companies Lacroix Defense and KNDS France supplying the UAE. “The Galix System is being deployed by the RSF in this conflict, and any use in Darfur would be a clear breach of the UN arms embargo,” said Callamard.
“Amnesty International has already shown how the constant flow of arms into Sudan is causing immense human suffering. All countries must immediately cease direct and indirect supplies of all arms and ammunition to the warring parties in Sudan. They must respect and enforce the UN Security Council’s arms embargo regime on Darfur before even more civilian lives are lost.”
France is bound by international, regional and national laws to prohibit the export of arms where there is a substantial risk that the arms could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international human rights or humanitarian law. If France cannot guarantee through export controls, including end user certification, that arms will not be re-exported to Sudan, it should not authorise those transfers. The UAE has a long track record of breaching UN Security Council arms embargoes, including in relation to Libya and Sudan.