More Jets (and more questions) for Khartoum

In a move criticized by the United States, the Sudanese government announced that it had purchased 12 MiG-29 fighter jets from Russia.

The MiG-29 is one of the world's leading air superiority fighters, developed to counter the U.S. Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighters.

This sale would normally proceed with minimal international notice, as major industrial nations export hundreds of advanced fighter jets every year. Yet, as news of this sale emerged, experts at the United Nations were raising questions about whether the jets would end up in use in Darfur, stoking a debate over all arms sales to the Sudanese government and the extension of the existing arms embargo to cover all sales of military equipment to Sudan.

In a report to the UN Security Council, the panel of experts monitoring the arms embargo in Darfur states that the Government of Sudan has flagrantly violated the embargo by repeatedly transferring equipment into Darfur. The panel also reported that the government continued to deploy military personnel to Darfur and still conducts offensive flight operations in Darfur.

While the fighter sale fighters raises questions about their possible future use in bombing civilians it also raises questions about what many observers, including the Christian Science Monitor, consider to be an escalating arms race between North and South Sudan. This is why these 12 new fighters raise at least three new questions for the government in Khartoum.

- Josh Kennedy, Education Associate