Official Reports Reveal UAE’s Active Role in Escalating Sudan’s Civil War

Official documents have revealed the UAE’s aggressive involvement in exacerbating the civil war in Sudan through extensive financial and military support for the non-governmental Rapid Support Forces militia.

The United Nations Security Council Presidency distributed a letter from the Sudanese mission that includes new information about the UAE’s backing of the Rapid Support Forces, which are engaged in conflict with the Sudanese army.

According to the Sudan News Agency, a document found inside a military vehicle was seized by army forces during a Rapid Support Forces attack on the Al-Shajara military area.

The document outlined “details of the military vehicle with chassis number VAD 2129, engine number 2222655, and model EX 300 _ISB679, which is one of the vehicles from Zayed Military City.”

In the Emirati military vehicle, six documents classified as top secret were discovered, belonging to the Presidential Guard and the Special Operations Division of the UAE Armed Forces. These documents included a list of Emirati officers and personnel, details on weapons, and records of daily movements and training activities for the Special Operations Platoon.

The letter also contained a request from the Sudanese government to the Security Council, urging it to take appropriate measures to halt what it described as “malicious” Emirati interference.

The mission stated in its letter that the Council’s inaction and reluctance to address this issue encourage the UAE to “persist in its brutal aggression against Sudan,” worsening the plight of civilians and threatening security and peace in both Sudan and the broader region.

Recently, Human Rights Watch confirmed that the UAE is exacerbating conflicts in Sudan by supplying new foreign-made weapons and equipment to one faction in the civil war, specifically the Rapid Support Forces militia.

The organization reported that the rebels responsible for war crimes and other atrocities in the ongoing conflict have recently received modern foreign weapons and military gear from various sources, primarily the UAE.

Human Rights Watch emphasized that the United Nations Security Council should renew and broaden the arms embargo and restrictions previously imposed on the Darfur region to encompass all of Sudan and hold violators accountable.

Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, a senior researcher focusing on crises, conflicts, and arms at Human Rights Watch, stated: “The conflict in Sudan represents one of the most severe humanitarian and human rights crises globally, with combatants committing atrocities without consequence. The newly acquired weapons and equipment will likely be used to perpetrate further crimes.”

“Since mid-2023, combatants from the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have shared images and videos showcasing new foreign-made equipment, including armed drones and anti-tank guided missiles,” he noted.

Human Rights Watch examined 49 photographs and videos, primarily posted by fighters from both factions on social media platforms such as Facebook, Telegram, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter), which depicted weapons utilized or captured during the conflict.

The new equipment identified by Human Rights Watch includes armed drones, drone jammers, anti-tank guided missiles, truck-mounted multi-barrel rocket launchers, and mortar munitions, with origins from companies based in China, Iran, Russia, Serbia, and the United Arab Emirates.

New visual evidence reveals equipment previously unrecorded as being in Sudanese hands, along with indications of its usage, suggesting that the warring factions acquired some of these weapons after the conflict erupted in April 2023. In one instance, batch numbers show that the ammunition was produced in 2023.

Since the outbreak of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, numerous civilians have died, millions have been displaced internally, and many others are confronting famine.

The SAF and RSF are likely to employ these weapons and equipment to perpetrate war crimes and other serious human rights violations not just in Darfur, but throughout the entire country.

The UN Security Council is expected to decide on September 11 whether to renew the sanctions regime on Sudan, which prohibits the transfer of military equipment to the Darfur region.

The sanctions regime was established in 2004 when Darfur was the center of a conflict that saw widespread human rights abuses, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. Since April 2023, the new conflict has affected most of Sudan’s states, but Security Council members have yet to take steps to extend the arms embargo to the entire country.

These findings highlight the shortcomings of the existing embargo that only targets Darfur and underscore the significant risks associated with the warring factions obtaining new weapons.

Implementing a nationwide arms embargo would help mitigate these issues by enabling better monitoring of arms transfers to Darfur and preventing the legal procurement of weapons for use in other regions of Sudan.

The Sudanese government has opposed the expansion of the arms embargo and has recently urged Security Council members to lift the sanctions entirely and remove the embargo on Darfur.

The organization warned that the widespread atrocities committed by the warring factions pose a significant risk that weapons and equipment acquired by these parties could be used to perpetrate serious human rights abuses and violations of humanitarian law, endangering civilians.

It emphasized that lifting the arms embargo would dismantle the work of the Panel of Experts on Sudan, which is one of the few entities providing the Security Council with regular and detailed reports on the conflict since the pro-SAF government successfully pushed for the closure of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan in December 2023.

In a report released in July, Amnesty International indicated that “newly manufactured weapons and military equipment from countries such as Russia, China, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates are being imported into Sudan in significant quantities and subsequently diverted to Darfur.”

The organization urged the Security Council to broaden the arms embargo currently imposed on Darfur to encompass all of Sudan to restrict the influx of weapons that could be used to commit war crimes. It also called for a public condemnation of governments, including the UAE, that violated the embargo on Darfur and for the implementation of urgent measures to hold individuals and entities accountable for such violations.