French Defense Systems Used in Sudan’s Civil War Prompt Backlash

Armed Sudanese soldiers prepare for the battlefield (International Team For the Study of Security Verona)

Amnesty International, a DC-based NGO that promotes human rights around the world, identified French weapons technology in Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces’ military arsenal on November 14. Using pictures sourced from social media, Amnesty International traced Galix defense systems used in the Sudanese Civil War back to two French companies: Lacroix Defence and KNDS France. Amnesty International reported that, embedded in Sudanese defense vehicles built in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) called armored personnel carriers (APCs), this technology “releases decoys, smoke and projectiles to counter close-range threats.” The secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, stated that the use of Galix systems in Darfur constitutes a breach of the UN arms embargo. 

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Sudanese Civil war began in April 2023 when tensions between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) escalated into armed conflict. While the SAF serves as the official military of Sudan, the RSF originated as a paramilitary force under control of the state’s President, Omar al-Bashir, to subdue rebellion in the 2000s, Al Jazeera reports. In 2017, the Rapid Support Forces Act legitimized the group as an independent security force and ascribed to it the responsibility of “supporting and assisting the Armed Forces.” Now in its second year, the civil war has “killed more than 24,000 people and created a humanitarian crisis that has displaced 11 million people,” per Al Jazeera.  According to the U.S. Department of State, both parties have committed war crimes. In particular, Human Rights Watch has accused the RSF of ethnic cleansing in the region of Darfur. 

The United Nations imposed an arms embargo on NGOs in the Darfur region in 2004. Among these NGOs was the Janjaweed, the militia group from which the RSF was created. According to the Washington Post, the UAE has been secretly providing weapons to the RSF. The SAF recently allowed the Washington Post to view RSF drones and photos of crates they captured. Upon inspection, journalists found labeling that linked these weapons to the UAE Armed Forces Joint Logistics Command. They report that the connection aligns with a previous assessment by the Sudan Conflict Observatory in 2023 tracking Emirati flights. However, both the RSF and Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs claim that the UAE has provided no “support or supplies.”

Amnesty International may have expected the use of UAE vehicles by the RSF in Sudan, but the French Galix system seems to have come as a surprise. The Guardian states that “While France can legally export weapons to the UAE, Amnesty said the government and French arms companies had a duty to monitor whether the Galix system was then being illegally exported to Sudan.” Access to weapons systems such as these is what has kept this war afire since April 2023. While many experts emphasize the severity of a UN embargo violation, there is no consensus on what the consequences will be for France, nor if there will be any at all. In 2021, Human Rights Watch called on France to stop selling arms to the UAE on account of their use in the Libyan and Yemeni conflicts. A similar response will likely follow the discovery of French weapons in Sudan. However, ceasing arms sales to the UAE would cost the French greatly, as from 2011 to 2020 they’ve ranked fifth of France's largest arms sales, according to Human Rights Watch.