CHINA and Russia were named yesterday as Sudan’s main arms suppliers. The report by Amnesty International came as the United Nations Security Council prepared for an extraordinary meeting tomorrow aimed at securing peace in the strife-torn African country.

Amnesty said that the two countries, permanent members of the Security Council, have consistently shipped weapons to the Khartoum Government. The arms were used against civilians in the 20-year conflict in south Sudan and during the crisis in Darfur, in the west of the country, which has forced 1.8 million villagers from their homes, Amnesty said.

Details of the weapons trade will put pressure on China, the largest single investor in Sudan’s oil industry, and on Russia. Both have used their vetos on the Security Council to block economic sanctions against Sudan. The 15-member Council will meet in Nairobi, only the eleventh time since 1952 that it has left New York.

The meeting was called to strengthen a shaky peace agreement in southern Sudan between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the Government.

The continued violence in Darfur, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of villagers at the hands of a government-sponsored militia, threatens to overshadow the meeting. After police attacked a camp for displaced people last week, Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy to Sudan, said that Darfur was in danger of sliding into anarchy.

Amnesty’s report said that the Sudanese Government had imported 12 MiG29 fighters from Russia as recently as July. Since the 1990s China has exported more than 40 fighter jets and dozens of helicopters to Sudan and was named as its leading supplier of small arms. Belarus and Ukraine were also named as important suppliers of military aircraft. MiG fighter jets, Antonov aircraft and helicopter gunships have attacked villages in Darfur.

A British firm, Endeavour Resources UK, which was named recently in The Sunday Times over links to the Sudanese Government, featured in the Amnesty report. Official documents showed that the company was authorised by Khartoum in May to buy 5,000 handguns from Brazil and 76 Antonov aircraft from an arms export company in Ukraine. The company has denied the allegations.

The two main rebel groups in Darfur, which have also violated the ceasefire agreed in April, have acquired many of their weapons after battles with government forces.

UN resolutions condemning the Sudanese Government have stopped short of sanctions or international military intervention. An expanded African Union force of 3,320 troops has been slow to arrive and lacks a mandate to protect civilians.

The humanitarian situation is getting worse. The World Food Programme could feed only 1.1 million people in October, nearly 200,000 fewer than in September.

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