By far the most abundant of all military equipment circulating in Sudan and South Sudan is Chinese-manufactured small-calibre ammunition. This includes 5.56 × 45 mm, 7.62 × 39 mm, 7.62 × 54R mm, and 12.7 × 108 mm cartridges. The varieties of ammunition of these calibres documented in Sudan and South Sudan were produced at six factories in China between 1967 and 2011 (see Table 4). Since small-calibre ammunition is consumed at higher rates than other types of ammunition, it requires constant resupply. With the exception of most of the 7.62 × 39 mm ammunition, the Small Arms Survey has observed newly manufactured Chinese small-calibre ammunition with several warring parties throughout Sudan and South Sudan. In most cases, this ammunition appears to derive from SAF stockpiles.
The two most common varieties of ammunition are Factory 945 7.62 × 54R mm and Factory 41 12.7 × 108 mm. Between 2011 and 2013, Small Arms Survey researchers observed large quantities of these varieties with the SPLM–N in South Kordofan and Blue Nile as well as with the SSDM/A (Athor and Yau Yau) and SSLM/A in South Sudan. The UN Panel of Experts on Sudan has also repeat-edly documented these types of ammunition in wide use throughout Darfur, in violation of Security Council Resolution 1591 (Gramizzi, Lewis, and Tubiana, 2012; UNSC, 2009, pp. 37–39; 2011a, p. 23). Survey researchers documented
Factory 945 7.62 × 54R ammuntion manufactured in each year from 2006 through 2011, and Factory 41 12.7 × 108 mm rounds manufactured in 1991 and in each year from 2006 through 2010.
Factory 41 12.7 × 108 mm ammunition with the date mark ‘10’, denoting production in 2010, was documented in South Kordofan, reportedly captured in the battles of al Hamra in June and July 2011 by SPLM–N and captured in Jaw by JEM in February 2012. Identical rounds were observed in Darfur at the SAF military camp of Shangal Tobay, Darfur, in May 2011.28 In all cases the ammunition was contained in Sudanese-manufactured boxes. Similarly, the presence of 12.7 × 108 mm rounds—wrapped in black polyethelene bags, each containing four rounds—identical to those seen in Darfur and South Kordofan were also documented in an SPLM–N garrison near the frontline in Blue Nile (Gramizzi, Lewis, and Tubiana, 2012). Although local SPLM–N officers referred to them as ‘part of SPLM–N stockpiles from before the war’, the black bags were contained in Sudanese-manufactured wooden boxes identical to those captured from SAF in South Kordofan and observed in Darfur. Hundreds of samples of the same rounds were also observed with the SSLM/A in Unity state in May 2013 (see Photo 3), but in what appeared to be Chinese packaging.
The SPLA captured Factory 945 7.62 × 54R mm ammunition with the date mark ‘09’, denoting production in 2009, from the SSDM/A under the
com-mand of George Athor in March 2011 (see Photo 4). Like the 12.7 × 108 mm ammunition, it was repackaged in black polyethelene bags in a Sudanese box. After their defection to the SPLA, Athor’s SSDM/A troops handed over the same variety of ammunition, al-though dated 2010, to the SPLA. These rounds, however, were contained in a Chinese-manufactured box with the contract number ‘10XSD14E0128STC/
SD’ (see Photos 5 and 6), indicating that in 2010 (‘10’) the Xinshidai (‘XSD’)29 company of China signed a contract
Photo 3: Factory 41 12.7 × 108 mm ammunition pro-duced in 2010 and documented with the SSLM/A in Unity, South Sudan, May 2013. © Jonah Leff
for the delivery of the ammunition to the Sudan Technical Center (‘STC’) in Sudan (‘SD’).
This shipment appears to have been part of a consignment of 6,998 cases, each containing 1,000 rounds, total-ling nearly 7 million rounds of 7.62 × 54R mm ammunition that China sup-plied to Sudan after 2010.30 In May 2012, Survey researchers documented five boxes of 7.62 × 54R mm ammu-nition that the SPLM–N captured from SAF; they bore the same contract number (see Photo 7), meaning that all six boxes were part of the same consignment that was supplied from China to Sudan.
With the re-emergence of David Yau Yau in Jonglei in late 2012 came an influx of weapons into the state, in particular a type of assault rifle never before documented in South Sudan. Whereas former Khartoum-backed rebels wielded mostly Chinese-produced Type 56-1 rifles, Yau Yau’s troops were supplied with Chinese-manufactured CQ rifles, a copy of the US M16, as discussed below. Visually and mechanically distinct from Kalashnikov-pattern rifles, CQ rifles are smaller in calibre (5.56 × 45 mm) than Type 56-1s.
During interviews held in February 2013, militiamen formerly under David Yau Yau in Jonglei revealed that Sudan’s
Photo 4: A Factory 945 7.62 × 54R mm cartridge pro-duced in 2009 and found in Sudanese packaging. The SPLA captured the rounds from Athor’s SSDM/A in March 2011. Jonglei, South Sudan, April 2011. © Jonah Leff
Photos 5 and 6: A Factory 945 7.62 × 54R mm cartridge produced in 2009 and found in a Chinese box with the contract number ‘10XSD14E0128STC/SD’. Athor’s SSDM/A had handed the box over to the SPLA. Jonglei, South Sudan, Septemnber 2012. © Jonah Leff
National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) had orchestrated the delivery of these weapons and their ammunition through several airdrops between August 2012 and January 2013. They pointed out that their CQ rifles were all loaded with one variety of Chinese-manufactured 5.56 × 45 mm ammunition produced by Factory 71 in 2008 at the Chongquing Chang jiang Electrical Group factory.
This was the first time this variety of ammunition had been documented by outside observers in either Sudan or South Sudan. Subsequently, the same variety of ammunition was found to be present with SSLM/A forces in Unity state in May 2013, with additional equipment that the SPLA seized from Yau Yau in 2013, as well as with Olony’s fighters in Upper Nile state. Several sam-ples of the ammunition were also observed with Murle fighters during an attack on the Lou Nuer in Walgak, Jonglei state, in July 2013.
Table 4 illustrates a selection of the types, years of manufacture, and custo-dians of small-calibre Chinese ammunition in Sudan and South Sudan docu-mented between 2011 and 2013.