The prohibition on the export, import, or transfer of weapons and related materials remained active in Juba and is due to expire on May 30, 2025.
However, the rights group says the lifting of this restriction will be untimely as South Sudan struggles to contain the fragile peace agreement signed in 2018.
“While the UN arms embargo has not been a panacea, the human rights situation would almost certainly be worse without it,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.
“Now is not the time to lift the embargo and add more weapons into the fray. We urge the Security Council to renew the embargo, enforce it and protect civilian lives,” added Chagutah.
The organisation says its Crisis Evidence Lab verified two videos featuring UPDF personnel and equipment.
“The first shows dozens of UPDF soldiers arriving at Juba International Airport on 11 March. The second shows armoured personnel carriers and military trucks with Ugandan armed forces license plates carrying tanks in Nimule, on the South Sudanese side of the South Sudan-Uganda border, on 17 March,” it said Wednesday.
A military confrontation between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and the White Army in Nasir County in Upper Nile State in early March renewed a deep-seated animosity between President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar.
This was compounded by the killing of an SSPDF commander, Maj. Gen. Majur Dak, 27 of his soldiers, and a United Nations peacekeeper. The government accused Machar of orchestrating the attack, leading to a retaliatory and indiscriminate aerial bombing in Nasir County, aided by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
On 4 May, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that two helicopter gunships bombed their pharmacy in Old Fangak in Jonglei State the day before and fired at the town, killing seven and injuring 20 others in another notable operation reportedly aided by the UPDF.
The Ugandan military initially claimed its forces were deployed to “secure Juba” and “protect President Kiir”. But Amnesty International said the deployment of UPDF and military equipment to South Sudan since 11 March 2025 flagrantly violated the arms embargo.
In a press briefing in late March, Michael Makuei Lueth, the Minister of Information and Government Spokesperson, said the deployment of UPDF was guided by a security agreement signed between Juba and Kampala in 2014.
It is for the third time that Uganda is intervening in de-escalating conflict in South Sudan, having made similar interventions in 2013 and 2016, all at the cost of heavy civilian casualties.
