Bypassing sanctions: Russia secretly sells weapons to South Sudan - an investigation

According to independent journalists, the Russian Federation continues to supply military goods even after the introduction of the UN embargo through a civil war in the African country. Since 2019, "Roboronexport" has illegally exported weapons to South Sudan in small parties. The relevant report was published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (Gi-Toc). Thus, in 2018, the UN introduced an armed embargo on the supply of weapons to South Sudan through the Civil War.

However, this did not stop the Kremlin. Russian weapons were transported by the sea. At first, it came to the Kenyan port of Mombas, where the parties were packed in containers and sent to South Sudan. As it turned out, a weapon buyer is a company related to the military leadership of South Sudan. It is also noted that in recent years, mountain equipment imported from Russia (declared as agricultural machinery) has also been transported through South Sudan.

Data from the Database on the Support of the Stockholm International Institute for Peace Problems (SIPRI) record that Russia exported weapons to South Sudan in 2011, 2015 and 2016, mostly military aircraft and armored vehicles. Most of the weapons used in South Sudan, according to observers, are of Russian origin. In 2007, the Ukrainian ship MV Faina was seized in Somalia's waters, carrying Russian military equipment.

The Kenyan government stated that the cargo was heading to Kenya, but later there were evidence that weapons were almost certainly intended for South Sudan, which at that time fought for separation from Sudan. After the international community paid attention to the disaster with "Faina", the flow moved from wholesale containers with weapons to smaller hiding places that would be more difficult to detect. We will remind, in October 2021 in Sudan there was a military coup.