Congo re-exported ammunition to Zimbabwe, UN experts say
China connection alleged for arms sent from Sudan
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UNITED NATIONS - The Democratic Republic of the Congo re-exported more than 50 tons of ammunition to Zimbabwe earlier this year, according to a recent report by a UN group of experts for the Security Council.
In their report on UN arms trade restrictions on Congo, where factional violence has raged in the East for years, the group also said that arms it believed originated in China had been flown to Congo from Sudan.
The five-person group said that the ammunition sent to Zimbabwe must have first been imported into Congo but did not specifically say it had come from China.
The Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on militias operating in eastern Congo.
It permits arms supplies to the Congolese government army or FARDC but requires that exporters first notify a UN sanctions committee.
The experts' group said it was "aware of large amounts of ammunition arriving in eastern Congo without any notification by exporters to the sanctions committee" and that the FARDC might be exporting weapons and ammunition to other countries in the region.
"As the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not produce weapons or ammunition, this stock would have been imported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo without notification and then possibly exported in violation of the original end-user agreement with the original exporter," it said.
It said that between Aug. 20 and 22 of this year, a
"While this is not a violation of the arms embargo, it is an indication that the Democratic Republic of the Congo could become a transit point for weapons destined for other countries," it said.
The UN experts also said that a Congolese Boeing-707 had carried out five flights between Khartoum and the Congolese city of Kisangani to deliver military supplies to the FARDC.
The group said it had "received credible information that the weapons transported originated in China."
