One of Turkey‘s largest defense industries, Baykar, violated sanctions by EU and US in Darfur by sending weapons to the Sudanese army, thereby fomenting civil war in the country, the Washington Post states.
In the report published, Baykar is accused of sending weapons and ammunition to the Sudanese army between August and November 2024.
According to the report, the first weapons, which were part of a €110.7 million contract between Baykar and the Sudanese military’s Defense Industries System-DIS procurement agency, landed by plane in August in Port Sudan. The US newspaper claims, in fact, to have confirmed that the last such flight arrived in Sudan on 15 September.
According to the Washington Post, the contract, signed by DIS director general Mirghani Idris Suleiman, was dated November 16, 2023, five months after the US imposed sanctions.
Part of the contract was to deliver six TB2 drones, three ground control stations and 600 missile warheads, also providing for 48 workers to provide “technical support to the country”.
Sudanese officials reportedly informed Baykar representatives during a meeting on September 9 that “Turkey had become the country that supported them the most,” according to an internal Turkish company memo.
The civil war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 after a power struggle ensued between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, his former deputy, who led the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The United Nations considers Sudan‘s civil war to be the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, with 14 million people displaced and famine spreading to many parts of the country.
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