Is the UAE fuelling the slaughter in Sudan?

The UN has designated the civil war in Sudan the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 13 million people forced to flee their homes and widespread reports of war crimes targeting civilians.

As the bloody power struggle intensifies, the United Arab Emirates has been accused of stalling peace efforts in the region. Abu Dhabi is the “main backer” of the Rapid Support Forces, an unnamed intelligence officer in the militia told Sky News. “In the beginning, it was the Russians – Wagner and the state. Now, they tell me it is the UAE supporting the RSF.”

Weapons from the UAE are reportedly arriving by plane via Darfur and Chad.

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What did the commentators say?

“The slaughter in Sudan is the horror the world swore would not happen again,” said The Sunday Times. But as the UAE allegedly “funnels” weapons and funds to the RSF, it “feels as though history’s nightmare is returning”.

Following the “bloody aftermath” of the takeover of El Fasher by the RSF, Abu Dhabi has been dragged into the “spotlight”, accused of having a central role in the “metastasising civil war”, said the Financial Times.

During the Biden and Trump administrations – the UAE has been an “important ally” to both – there has been a noticeable silence. But “the latest atrocities have raised hackles in Washington”. Two Democratic representatives have reintroduced an act to Congress that would “halt US weapons exports to the UAE until it provided evidence it has ceased support for the militia”. The Republican chair of the Senate foreign relations committee has called on Donald Trump to designate the RSF a terrorist organisation.

Disentangling the UAE from the RSF may be difficult, given Abu Dhabi’s vested interest in the region, said Middle East Eye. Sudan presents the UAE with an “arena” in which to “project its power” across the Red Sea and also a potential gateway to east Africa. Its “untapped gold resources” are also appealing to the UAE, which has emerged as a “global trading hub in gold”, as it attempts to diversify its financial portfolio away from oil.

The RSF leader – Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti – and his family reportedly own a gold company that “operates on lands seized by the RSF in Darfur in 2017”. One of his brothers, Algoney Dagalo, is a “businessman based in the UAE”.

What next?

Although it continues to deny directly funding and supplying the RSF, the UAE’s “diplomatic machine is for the first time admitting to mistakes in its Sudan policy”, a sign that the “reputational damage” is beginning to bite, said The Guardian.

On Sunday, a UAE representative said that the emirate and others, in hindsight, should have imposed sanctions on Sudan following the 2021 military coup partially led by the RSF. The admission indicates that the Gulf state believes “it must distance itself from the RSF, the force it so nurtured”.

“The fall of El Fasher marks a turning point,” said The Sunday Times. If no resolution can be reached “Sudan risks partition”, a scenario that “does not suggest any imminent end to the killing. On the contrary, in fact.”