UAE Boosts Financial Aid to Sudan Amid Ongoing Violent Conflict

The UAE has announced an increase in its financial and humanitarian aid to support the Sudanese people suffering from the ongoing civil war, as a cover for Abu Dhabi’s fueling of the bloody conflict in the country.

According to a statement from the UAE’s Strategic Communications Department, the UAE has initiated a series of emergency relief operations for Sudan. This includes dispatching 159 relief flights carrying over 10,000 tons of food, medical, and relief supplies.

The ministry noted that these efforts respond to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan, addressing the critical shortage of essential supplies needed to support the Sudanese population.

The UAE’s Strategic Communications Department stated that these relief efforts are part of a broader strategy to stabilize the region and ensure that those affected by the conflict in Sudan receive the necessary aid to survive and rebuild their lives.

This initiative comes amid growing criticism of the UAE’s role in the Sudanese conflict. The Sudanese government and military have accused Abu Dhabi of arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rival Sudanese paramilitary group, which they claim has intensified the war and contributed to war crimes.

Despite a UN report indicating “credible” evidence of UAE arms shipments to the RSF “several times a week” via northern Chad, UAE authorities have denied these allegations and reaffirmed their commitment to humanitarian support in Sudan.

A few days ago, the Financial Times, an American newspaper, highlighted claims that the UAE is involved in exacerbating civil conflicts to exploit resources and further its agendas for influence and expansion.

The Financial Times illustrated this by pointing to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, which has displaced 10 million people, left 25 million suffering from severe hunger, and resulted in severe human rights abuses.

The newspaper described the conflict in Sudan as a proxy war, with various sponsors, including emerging middle powers from the Gulf region, playing a significant role. The war, which erupted in Khartoum in April of the previous year, highlights these sponsors’ expanding influence in the broader region.

The hidden battle they are waging, which is repeated in a web of competing mediation efforts, makes it difficult to untangle the conflict’s tangled “goals,” and makes its resolution even more intractable.

A recent report by Amnesty International found that weapons and military equipment supplied by the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China, and Russia have been deployed on the battlefield. Civilians have been the main victims.

This month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an independent group of experts, declared famine conditions affecting half a million people in Zamzam camp in North Darfur.

The concealed battle being fought, evident through a complex web of competing mediation efforts, obscures the true objectives of the conflict and complicates its resolution.

A recent Amnesty International report revealed that weapons and military equipment from the UAE, Turkey, China, and Russia have been used in the conflict, with civilians suffering the most.

Additionally, this month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an independent expert group, reported that famine conditions are impacting half a million people in the Zamzam camp in North Darfur.

People fleeing the besieged city of El Fasher, which had previously been a refuge but is now subjected to continuous bombardment, have sought shelter in the Zamzam camp.

Last week, Médecins Sans Frontières reported that a hospital in the area had been bombed for the tenth time, with food and medical supplies no longer reaching it.

According to Amnesty International, nearly all of Sudan’s seven neighboring countries serve as transit routes for lethal equipment. The organization noted, “This conflict is sustained by an almost unrestricted flow of arms.”

Last year’s outbreak of conflict between Sudan’s leading generals, who had previously joined forces to remove Omar al-Bashir in 2019, raised concerns that regional powers might become involved. These concerns have now been confirmed.

Despite Sudan’s long-standing instability, the country possesses valuable resources that attract other nations: gold, fertile land, a lengthy stretch of the Nile, and notably, 750 kilometers of Red Sea coastline.

The alignment of proxies is not straightforward, and their involvement is often denied. Nonetheless, the situation roughly breaks down as follows: Egypt and Saudi Arabia support the Sudanese Armed Forces and its leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The proxies on each side don’t line up neatly—and they routinely deny involvement. But it goes something like this. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are standing behind the Sudanese Armed Forces and its commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The UAE and Russia back the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that emerged from the notorious Janjaweed and is led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a former camel trader also known as Hemedti. Other foreign sponsors are more mixed in their support.

Burhan represents the Sudanese state, although humanitarians argue that he has abandoned that claim by blocking food aid to areas of the country controlled by the RSF.

In addition to using starvation to further his aims, Amnesty International and others have accused Burhan’s forces of serious human rights abuses.

The RSF is even worse. Alex de Waal, a Sudan expert at Tufts University, describes it as a “looting machine.”

According to him, a win for the RSF, which has collaborated with the Russian mercenary group formerly known as Wagner for years, would turn Sudan into “a completely controlled entity of a transnational mercenary organization.”

The UAE denies supporting the RSF, though several independent experts—including a U.N. panel—have presented satellite and other evidence to suggest otherwise.

Those who claim to understand the UAE’s motives say it suspects Burhan of being too close to Islamists. Hemeti, though he has a genocidal legacy, has managed to present himself as on the side of democracy.

This is one of those conflicts where it’s hard to blame the West for pulling the strings. If anything, it’s guilty of not paying much attention.

While the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are existential, moral and strategic struggles, it’s been hard to train itself to find justice in the Burhan-Hemeti conflict.

Neither side seems capable of achieving a decisive victory. Burhan’s forces have retreated from Khartoum to Port Sudan. Hemeti’s forces are entrenched around Darfur. Khartoum is contested. And Sudan, which already lost South Sudan after its independence in 2011, could fracture further.

So far, the numerous mediation efforts have only managed to establish a tenuous ceasefire, as international calls grow louder for sanctions against the UAE and other state backers of the Sudan conflict to help end the war and secure peace.