Israeli arms fuelling South Sudan conflict- Report

South Sudan soldiers at a base near Bentiu, in the north, in April 2012. A confidential United Nations report accuses Israel of fuelling the war in South Sudan through the sale of weapons to the government. PHOTO | FILE |

A confidential United Nations report accuses Israel of fuelling the war in South Sudan through the sale of weapons to the government.

The Juba-based Miraya Radio said the report was discussed by the UN panel of experts last Thursday at a high level Security Council meeting.

According to the Miraya Radio, the report disclosed that there was substantial evidence to prove the arms deals between Israel and South Sudan, especially after the December 2013 outbreak of war in the later.

Bulgaria is also named in the report as an arms supplier to South Sudan.

“This evidence illustrates the well-established networks through which weapons procurement is coordinated from suppliers in eastern Europe and the Middle East and then transferred through middlemen in eastern Africa to South Sudan,” the report says.

It further says the bodyguards of former Vice-President Riek Machar, who were in the DR Congo, were armed with Israel-made automatic rifles that were part of a stock to Uganda in 2007.

The Bulgarian firm is also pointed in the report as delivering a shipment of small arms' ammunition and 4,000 assault rifles to Uganda in July 2014, which were later transferred to South Sudan.

The South Sudan government was not yet to officially respond to the report.