Proliferation of small arms and light weapons is a critical humanitarian development and governance challenge; governments need to address the issue in a united and holistic approach. This paper, published by SaferAfrica and Saferworld, summarises their audit of arms control legislation in Sudan and its conformity to regional and international arms control agreements. While Sudan’s current legislation conforms to many regional and international requirements, some regulatory gaps still need to be addressed. This report is intended to assist lawmakers and other actors in developing new legislation which will address these gaps.
In 2000, the Nairobi Declaration on the Problem of the Proliferation of Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa was signed by a number of area countries. Since then, implementation of the Declaration, while slower than desired, has begun to develop momentum.
This audit of SALW legislation, undertaken in 2004, is one of a series conducted in several Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa countries. It measures legislative conformity to regional and international arms control agreements and is intended to assist in planning future legislation. Audited
countries include Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The primary Sudanese small arms control legislation is the Arms, Ammunition and Explosives Act, 1986, as amended in 1993 and 1997. The Act defines different arms classes, but does not define light weapons separately in order to enable prohibition of their possession and use by civilians. Other findings include:
- Sudan’s small arms legislation conforms to most regional and international agreements on civilian possession and use, import, export and transit and trade. Licenses and competency testing are required for civilian purchase and possession. Trading and import/export require licensing and transaction record keeping.
- Legislation conforms to some agreements for record keeping and marking, manufacture and seizure, disposal and enforcement. Records of civilian licenses are required and provisions exist for marking. Manufacturing premises must be specifically licensed; provisions exist for state authorities to seize and confiscate illegal small arms.
- Regulations contain a list of which types of small arms may be owned by public officials and armed forces.
- There are no controls over brokering or enforcement of arms embargoes.
- Penalties of imprisonment are provided. They range from the offence of importing small arms without a license to death or imprisonment for carrying unlicensed small arms in certain areas.
Future amendments to Sudan’s small arms legislation should include the following requirements established by regional and international agreements:
- a separate light weapons definition to enable prohibition of civilian possession and use;
- prohibition of civilian possession/use of all light weapons and automatic/semi-automatic rifles and machine guns;
- stricter trade record keeping, use of import/export end-user certificates and marking of small arms upon import;
- marking upon manufacture and stricter manufacturing record keeping;
- provisions for disposal/destruction and re-activation of de-activated arms;
- controls for brokering and enforcement of small arms embargoes; and
- provisions for rendering state-owned small arms as surplus or obsolete.
