Hijacked tanks were going to Sudan

[Watser?]

There have been rumours all along, but the BBC now claims proof that the 33 tanks on a Ukranian ship captured by Somali pirates were not bought by the Kenyan army but by the South Sudan regional government:

The BBC has seen evidence suggesting that the Ukrainian ship being held by pirates off Somalia is carrying weapons and tanks destined for South Sudan.

A copy of the freight manifest appears to show contracts for the hardware were made by the Kenyan Ministry of Defence on behalf of South Sudan's government.

This would directly contradict repeated statements by Kenya that the weapons on board the MV Faina are for its army.

...

A copy of the cargo manifest given to the BBC appears to confirm that the contract was issued on behalf of South Sudan, although the Kenyan defence ministry is named as the consignee.

Contract numbers for tanks, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and anti-aircraft guns contain the initials GOSS, which is widely used to refer to the Government Of South Sudan.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Hijacked tanks 'for South Sudan'

[California Tanker]

Despite my thought that my first question is 'What the heck are they going to do with 30 T-72s' (The thing about digging them in to static positions is stupid), my second thought is along the lines of 'so what?' It's a de-facto independent state.

NTM

[Watser?]

It flies in the face of the agreement by which they became a de-facto independent sate.

[California Tanker]

Not sure it does, actually, after reading through it briefly. The agreement allows for the maintenance of the two independent military bodies, and says nothing about prohibiting arms imports. It says that a portion of the North and South militaries will form combined forces, and that eventually the goal is a national unified military, but that time period has not yet hit. In the meantime, the proposal is that the two forces work with the goal of future integration. The T-72s are not very dissimilar to some of the equipment in service with Sudan's national army.

NTM

[Watser?]

Somehow I doubt that. For one thing: if there was nothing wrong with it, why did they try to smuggle them in by way of Kenya and why did the Kenyans lie about it?

[California Tanker]

It certainly doesn't build trust between North and South. You can understand why the South doesn't want the North to have a monopoly on modern tanks and crews after integration, just in case it all falls apart, but the fact that they may be thinking about this could be seen by the North to be provocative or having an intent/desire for the agreement to fail.

Kenyans probably lied about it because it affects the perception of their being neutral, given that they helped broker the CPA to begin with.

NTM

[Watser?]

Personally I think Sudan is going to fall apart anyway, iirc they built that into the peace treaty: that after a certain period the South gets to vote on whether they want to become independent. But yeah, this is not exactly a trust-building measure.

[Deadlokd]

Which side committed the genocide? I just want to know which side to be hatin'.