http://www.businessinsider.com.au/this-maps-shows-how-iranian-weaponry-is-making-it-to-one-of-africas-most-violent-hotspots-2015-2
BRIEFING
This maps shows how Iranian weaponry is making it to one of Africa's
most violent hotspots
ARMIN ROSEN FEB 13, 2015, 10:40 AM BOOKMARK
The Sudan-South Sudan border region is one of Africa’s most persistent
trouble-spots.
The Sudanese and South Sudanese governments allegedly support rebel
movements that operate on the other country’s territory. The thorny
and potentially explosive question of sovereignty over the oil-rich
enclave of Abyei’s still hasn’t been resolved, even after South
Sudan’s peaceful succession from Sudan in 2011.
Militias run rampant on either side of a disputed border. War is
ongoing in South Korodfan and Blue Nile, and the conflict in nearby
Darfur displaced over 457,000 people last year — and this is in
addition to the devastating civil war in South Sudan that kicked off
in late 2013.
The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey has tracked developments in one of
the world’s most remote and complex conflict zones through intensive,
on-the-ground reporting on the flow of armaments. In a May, 2014
report, SAS traced the origins of arms and ammunition used by the
region’s constellation of armed groups.
Much of the weaponry that feeds this mess is Chinese and Sudanese in
origin — which is not surprising, considering China’s economic and
political interests in an oil-rich part of the world and Sudan’s
region-leading domestic arms industry.
But there’s plenty of Iranian weaponry making its way around the
conflict area as well, as the map below demonstrates. (SAF refers to
the Sudanese Armed Forces. The SPLM-N is an anti-government militia in
Sudan whose arsenal largely consists of arms looted from the SAF. The
Olony, Athor, and Yau Yau groups are all anti-government militias
operating in South Sudan, and there’s evidence that they have received
assistance from Sudan as well.)
Most of these weapons were likely in the possession of the regime in
Khartoum at some point. As the Small Arms Survey report notes, “Iran’s
role in Sudan’s defence industry is primarily ideological.” They are
both regimes founded by revolutionary Islamist governments. And
they’re both countries under international sanctions, which gives them
added incentive to cooperate.
Iran also reaps a strategic dividend from their ties with Sudan. Their
warships have docked at Sudan’s Red Sea ports, and the relationship is
a rare instance of Iran building close ties with a Sunni Muslim
government, or with a state outside of the Middle East.
Recently, Qassem Suleimani, the head of external operations for Iran’s
powerful Revolutionary Guards, explained Iran’s expansionist ambitions
and may even have hinted at its relationship with Sudan’s Islamist
regime:
General Soleimani: we can see the signs of exporting our revolution to
Bahrain,Iraq, Syria, Yemen and north of Africa.
– Rohollah Faghihi (_at_FaghihiRohollah) February 12, 2015
In return for being an Iranina client, the ever-embattled regime in
Khartoum receives crucial Iranian help in setting up and operating its
domestic arms capacity. And it gets plenty of weapons, too. The Small
Arms Survey sites UN sources that report Iran was responsible for “13
per cent of Khartoum’s self-reported arms imports from 2001 to 2012.”
The SAS report details which of these weapons have made their way to
the war-torn border area. Iranian light machine guns, RPG launchers,
mortar tubes, and landmines — which are curiously based on Israeli
designs according to SAS, meaning that at least some of Iran’s arsenal
is reverse-engineered from weapons built by one of Tehran’s chief
geopolitical foes — have been found in the region.
And Iran may not have wanted international monitors to know that it
was providing certain types of weaponry to Sudan. “Unlike Iranian RPG
launchers found in other conflict arenas, these launchers usually do
not bear any markings, rendering the origin difficult to ascertain,”
the report states. “Since these features are distinctly Iranian,
however, the launchers are probably Iranian-produced.”
Members of the revolutionary guard attend the anniversary ceremony of
Iran’s Islamic Revolution at the Khomeini shrine in the Behesht Zahra
cemetery, south of Tehran, February 1, 2012.
Then there are the unmanned aerial vehicles. Sudan and Iran signed a
military cooperation agreement in 2007 that allowed Khartoum to
purchase an unspecified number of Iranian Ababil-3 drones. There’s
evidence that 3 to 5 of these drones were used for surveillance in
Darfur — a place where the Sudanese regime has committed grave human
rights abuses — starting in 2008. Anti-regime fighters also shot down
a Sudanese drone with a registration sticker from the “Iran Aviation
Manufacturing Ind Co.” in March of 2014, according to the SAS report.
It’s probable that a military with the fairly limited capabilities of
Sudan’s required Iranian training and expertise in order to operate
its Ababil-3s. Even if it’s less of a factor than in Syria, Iraq, and
Yemen, Iranian influence in Sudan is still helping to drive a hugely
destructive network of conflicts.
Read the entire report here.
http://www.smallarmssurveysudan.org/fileadmin/docs/working-papers/HSBA-WP32-Arms-Tracing.pdf
Received on Sun Feb 15 2015 - 14:11:54 EST