Two truckloads of ammunition were transferred to the capital Juba from Uganda in June, while late a year ago South Sudanese army chief Paul Malong asked a Lebanese company to begin developing a small ‘arms ammunition manufacturing facility in Juba, the monitors said.
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“The relatively large scale of the hostilities which featured the deployment of MI-24 attack helicopters, in coordination with ground forces, reinforced by armed units, support the conclusion that the fighting was directed by the highest level of the SPLA command structure”, said the report.
The report also says Kiir and Malong have focused on procuring new weapons and ammunition.
Opposition troops have not received any significant arms shipments, United Nations sanctions monitors said in a confidential report seen by Reuters on Thursday. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties. “By the government’s own account, the vast majority of government revenue … has funded security expenses and the war effort, including the procurement of weapons, rather than social services”.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a note Friday evening that the armed fighters and civilians crossed into Congo from South Sudan with Machar, who was evacuated from Garamba National Park with his wife, son and 10 aides on August 17.
“Even without an worldwide arms embargo, states should unilaterally suspend arms transfers given the likelihood that arms would be used to commit human rights violations”, Elizabeth Deng, Amnesty International’s South Sudan researcher told AP.
The report says officials have focused on “mobilizing their respective tribes”, which has escalated the conflict from a “primarily political to tribal war”.
South Sudan plunged into conflict soon after Kiir fired Machar from his post as vice president in 2013.
The government and rebels’ “arming of communities based on tribal affiliation continues to fuel widespread violence”, it says.
She says the Security Council is “engaging directly with the government of South Sudan to underscore that intimidation and threats toward civil society must cease immediately”.
The visiting diplomats also pressed South Sudan’s government to hold accountable soldiers accused of rampaging through a hotel compound popular with foreigners in the July chaos.
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Over four hours, between 80 and 100 soldiers overran the Terrain compound, beat and abused, raped and gang-raped at least five worldwide aid workers and executed an employee of a non-governmental organization.
