B.C.-made rifles in the hands of Sudan fighters
Online researchers reveal Canadian weapons in war zones
A sniper rifle bearing the logo of a small British Columbia company shouldn’t be visible in social media videos from Sudan, Libya, or Yemen.
Yet that is exactly what a CBC News visual investigation has now documented — again.
The discovery is raising urgent questions about the Canadian arms trade, the enforcement of arms embargoes, and the gap between Canada’s stated values and its real-world record on weapons accountability.
The company is Sterling Cross Defense Systems, based in Abbotsford, B.C. The rifle is its XLCR precision bolt-action model. And the fighters brandishing it in verified photographs and videos are members of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a paramilitary group accused of civilian massacres, torture, and war crimes.
Images were first provided to CBC News by an online user known as streakingdelilah. CBC independently sourced and verified all photos and videos, sharing them with researchers at Bellingcat and the Centre for Information Resilience, which runs the Sudan Witness project.
A pattern, not an anomaly
In November 2025, CBC verified at least nine separate images of RSF fighters carrying Sterling Cross XLCR rifles throughout Sudan — some geolocated, others confirmed by matching the distinctive logo on the rifle. The images date back to at least 2023.
The RSF has been one of the primary actors in a conflict that has killed an estimated 150,000 people and internally displaced more than 12 million civilians. The city of El Fasher, besieged for months, fell to RSF forces in October 2024, with reports of horrific civilian massacres following immediately after.
This week, CBC published a follow-up investigation showing the problem is not limited to Sudan. Canadian-made Sterling Cross rifles are now visible in the hands of a Libyan militia unit, and are openly advertised for sale online by arms dealers in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. CBC identified a specific serial number on one of the rifles offered for sale in Yemen.
Canada has had an arms embargo on Sudan since 2004
Canada has officially maintained an arms embargo on Sudan for over two decades. Material and financial sanctions against entities involved in Sudan’s conflict were added in 2024. Sudan, Libya, and Yemen are all subject to Canadian arms restrictions — and, in several cases, UN arms embargoes — precisely because they are home to groups responsible for widespread human rights abuses and mass killings.
Yet the rifles showed up anyway.
The United Arab Emirates connection
Experts point to the United Arab Emirates as a likely intermediary. The UAE has long supplied the RSF, and Canada exports significant quantities of weapons and military equipment there.
As Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told CBC: the UAE “does not have a domestic defence industry of its own robust enough to supply multiple paramilitary groups across the region” — making it a documented re-routing hub for Western arms flowing into conflict zones.
Prime Minister Carney at the UAE
Our Prime Minister arrived in the UAE last fall to a lavish military welcome put on by UAE Industry Minister Sultan al-Jaber. There was no press conference, and no opportunity for journalists to witness the meetings.
At the close of the visit, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa is working on a $1-billion project aimed at expanding critical minerals processing capacity in Canada, while securing the equivalent of $70 billion in investment from the United Arab Emirates.
“We welcome UAE investors to visit Canada — I will personally host them — to explore investment in Canada’s transformative projects,” he said, reported The Canadian Press.
Carney also told reporters that he raised the Sudan civil war with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose government denies accusations it is fuelling ethnic violence in that country.
“We did discuss the situation in Sudan,” Carney said, adding that this centred on the so-called Quad process, where the U.S., the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are working on “establishing a ceasefire and peace consistent with the initiative of President Trump.”
Canada not doing enough
It seems clear that the conflict between Canada seeking investment from the UAE is conflicting with the need to confront the Middle Eastern country over illicit sales of Canadian-made arms to RSF forces in Sudan.
“If Canada was doing enough then we wouldn’t see a pattern of the illicit diversion of Canadian weapons systems in violation of UN arms embargoes,” said Kelsey Gallagher of Project Ploughshares.
Canada presents itself to the world as a country committed to human rights, the rule of law, and multilateralism. We sign arms treaties like the Arms Trade Treaty. We impose embargoes. We issue statements of concern.
PeaceQuest readers know that we have frequently pointed out that the growing danger of Canadian arms exports ending up in terrible conflicts or the hands of human rights offenders is a growing threat.
Prime Minister Mark Carney made a pledge in February to expand Canada’s arms industries by 50%. This will be accomplished through a combination of massive Canadian military spending on local contracts, and sales of weapons abroad.
But Canada’s laws that aim to ensure that these weapons don’t end up in the “wrong hands” are completely inadequate.
Peace advocates and human rights defenders in Canada have been raising these concerns for years. The CBC investigations have now provided the documentary evidence the public needs to demand action. The question is whether the government will respond — or wait for the next investigation to reveal the next batch of Canadian-made weapons in the next war zone.
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