South Sudanese Arms Trade Worsens Growing Refugee Crisis

Despite widespread famine, the South Sudanese government, led by President Salva Kiir, continues to funnel money into its ongoing conflict. It is estimated that the country spends “substantially more” than half of its budget on arms, in comparison with the U.S, which spends only 15% on defense, according to a report by the United Nations.

An arms embargo was proposed by the previous US administration, but was rejected in a vote by the UN Security Council, despite warnings of imminent genocide by a special commission to South Sudan. Without the enforcement of such an embargo, arms continue to flow into the country from Sudan, Uganda, and the DRC. L39 jets sold to Uganda by Ukraine have also ended up in the hands of South Sudanese government forces, along with armored vehicles and military equipment from Egypt. Opposition forces have received little assistance, according to the report.

Although they are not supported by any major outside power, rebel forces in the country have threatened to disrupt oil production, which accounts for almost 100% of the young country’s GDP. “People in South Sudan are not receiving their money [from oil]. This money is going to the pockets [of government officials], and for buying arms for killing our people. If we have the chance to stop the oil production, we will do it,” said Dak Duop Bichok, head of a Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM IO) committee.

On March 28, the rebel group released three foreign oil workers whom it had kidnapped as part of a plan to target government oil revenues. Initially, they had been held for a $1 million ransom, but were released “without any deal” by the SPLM IO, according to South Sudan's Information Minister Michael Makuei.

Despite the possibility of a disruption in oil production, the thriving arms trade has driven almost two million South Sudanese refugees into Uganda alone, creating what NPR dubs the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis. Uganda’s Bidi Bidi refugee camp is now the biggest in the world.

As numbers of refugees continue to climb, so do the atrocities committed against them. On April 3, the government’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) attacked Pajok, a border town in southern South Sudan, and is accused of slitting the throats of refugees fleeing into Uganda before stringing their bodies up from door frames, according to Al Jazeera. In a UN report released in March, the SPLA was also charged with gruesome attacks against civilians; the report claims that “groups allied to the government are being allowed to rape women in lieu of wages.”

The growing arms trade, combined with a worsening famine and an apparent disregard by the government for the well-being of its citizens, continues to exacerbate one of the worst refugee crises in history. The Trump administration has not yet released a comprehensive foreign policy on Africa, but Georgetown’s upcoming working group on the conflict will present the administration with policy recommendations in an attempt to alleviate the crisis.