Sudan war fuels flow of advanced arms to South Sudan, U.N. says
July 16, 2025 (UNITED NATIONS) – The conflict in Sudan is fueling a flow of sophisticated, looted weapons into neighbouring South Sudan, violating a U.N. arms embargo and threatening the fragile peace in the world’s youngest nation, a report by United Nations experts said.
The report, submitted to Security Council members on July 1, 2025, said South Sudanese security services began seizing modern, Turkish-made rifles with scopes from civilians and cattle keepers in late 2024, a significant escalation from the typical arms in the region.
Investigators traced the weapons—including BRG 55, HUSAN Arms MKA 556, and UTAS Defence rifles—to stockpiles looted by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum.
These arms are smuggled across the porous border from RSF-held territory into South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state and the contested Abyei region, the report said. The trade is part of a two-way illicit economy where “individuals with military or political connections” exchange arms and looted goods for fuel and food, effectively sustaining the Sudanese conflict.
The arms trafficking contrasts sharply with official relations between the two nations, whose leaders have maintained cooperation driven by a mutual dependency on oil revenues. South Sudan’s oil is exported via a pipeline through Sudan.
Sudan’s leader, General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, visited Juba twice in late 2024 for talks on oil, trade, and security. Khartoum also helped broker a peace deal between Juba and an opposition leader in February 2025 and negotiated a humanitarian corridor.
This fragile relationship was tested in January 2025 after the Sudanese Armed Forces recaptured the city of Wad Madani from the RSF. Graphic videos circulated showing the alleged killing of South Sudanese men accused of backing the RSF, sparking violent anti-Sudanese protests across South Sudan.
South Sudan’s government condemned the killings as “terrorism” but also deployed security forces to protect Sudanese nationals and their property from reprisal attacks, a move commended by international observers.
Tensions were further stoked in December 2024 when Juba announced the results of a decade-old referendum on the status of the disputed Abyei region, a move the report said could antagonize Khartoum.
The U.N. Panel of Experts operates under a Security Council mandate to monitor a sanctions regime first imposed in 2015. This includes a comprehensive arms embargo on South Sudan established in 2018 to curb the flow of weapons fueling conflict. The panel’s role is to investigate and provide information on violations to the Council.
The report warns that the influx of advanced weapons is making local conflicts in South Sudan more lethal and undermining the country’s stalled 2018 peace agreement. It concludes that the war in Sudan can no longer be seen as a contained conflict, as it is actively exporting instability to the broader region.