In April 2023, a war broke out in Sudan between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese National Army. Its impact has been devastating, millions were displaced and thousands died, in addition to the large destruction of buildings and infrastructure, but this war has been also fueled and sustained by external actors that are investing in it – namely the UAE, the main backer for the RSF militia. Given the urgency of the issue, Congress members who started to take note of this intervention should put more pressure to address the main cause of the war.
The RSF was extablished by President Omar Al Bashir, primarily in 2013, from the restructuring of the notorious Janjaweed militia. Its main task was to support the central government’s counterinsurgency operations in Darfur and South Kordofan. Its ideology has been the ethnic cleansing of Africans and NonArabs in Darfur and dispossessing them of their, livestock, lands and pastures. In 2017, the Sudanese parliament passed a law that officially recognized the militia and organized its activities. The militia has reportedly committed countless crimes and atrocities during the ongoing war, including the destruction of villages, the killing of protesters, sexual violations and rape, mass killings, unlawful detentions, the targeting of hospitals and churches, and attacks on journalists and media institutions, in addition to ethnic-based killings and recruiting children as soldiers during the ongoing war.
They then joined the Sudanese Army units as soldiers recruited by Saudi Arabia to fight in Yemen. There the UAE found in the RSF its trusted ally. The UAE decided to adopt the militia by supporting it with money, hosting its social media team, and arranging for the militia leader’s diplomatic travels. In addition, the UAE has been providing military support to the militia, In just one week, and a clear violation of the UN arms embargo, open-source investigators identified three air shipments from the UAE to an airport it established east of Chad. Moreover, A UN report mentioned that UAE flights coincided with a surge of highly sophisticated weapons and arms used by the RSF such as drones and anti-aircraft missiles. The main reason behind this ceaseless support is that the UAE believes once the militia takes power in Sudan, it can advance its economic and political interests in the country, such as controlling more seaports and agricultural land, preventing the Islamists from returning to power and recruiting more Sudanese to fight in Libya alongside General Haftar, the UAE’s main ally in Libya who is coordinating with Wagner (various reports suggest that the UAE is co-financing Wagner in Libya). Most recently, a UAE cargo plane was identified by a humanitarian providing military aid to the RSF militia in the region.
The UAE’s support of the RSF has been a subject of criticism by many observers and rights groups, for instance, In April 2024, the Refugee International president issued a statement calling upon the UAE to restrain from funding the miltia citing the atrocities and war crimes committed by the militia in Darfur and requested the UN security council to intervene in this issue.
In response to the global outcry, the UAE launched a disinformation campaign denying that it backs the RSF and rejecting credible and independent reports that show in detail its ongoing support to the militia, falsely claiming it takes no side in the war. In addition, the UAE has been working to impede any independent investigation into this issue.
Thus far, The U.S. government has been modestly reacting to the UAE’s involvement in Sudan, for instance, the U.S. envoy to the UN appealed to the UAE to stop supporting warring parties in Sudan. The U.S. representative to Sudan condemned the violence and massacres committed by the RSF but appears to be hesitant about naming its main backer. Most recently, the treasury department decided to block several UAE based companies with links to the war in Sudan.
Recently, US Congress members started to address the UAE’s negative intervention in Sudan and where the U.S. government should act. In January 2024, the representative Ilhan Omar introduced a joint resolution that aimed at blocking arms deals that part of it contained $85 million to the UAE, one of the cited reasons is that the UAE has been violating the UN arms embargo in Darfur and supporting the RSF militia that the state department found it committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. This effort, if successful, will put considerable pressure on the UAE and encourage it to stop arming the militia.
Another congressional effort has been started by Senator Sara Jacobs, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa who, along with a coalition of ten other senators, issued a statement that urges the UAE to stop backing the RSF militia for committing mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing. Sara Jacobs is constantly meeting with Sudan experts and activists to discuss strategies to pressure the UAE to stop arming RSF, most recently, Senator Jacobs also introduced a resolution that would ban selling U.S. arms to the UAE until it stops aiding the RSF.
Further, The U.S. Congress also introduced an Act that declared the continuous violation by the rapid support forces in Darfur against non-arab tribes in Darfur as genocide, the press release mentioned that they want the world to know we stand together in our outrage at these genocidal actions by the militia and its enabler, indirectly referring to the UAE.
Urgently, The Congress should also address the smuggling of sudanese gold by Wagner in coordination with the RSF which, eventually, according to reports by the UN and watchdog groups, reaches Russia through the facilitation of the UAE. In August 2023, an investigative report exposed that the then Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, met with RSF leaders just days before his death, and offered them supply arms in exchange for providing him with gold.
Blocking the UAE will have a significant impact on ending the war and the future of the Sudan, the immediate result will be in stopping the ongoing violence in Darfur that taking the lives of thousands, currently, in just one year, the RSF committed two genocides against non-arab tribes in Ardamata and El Geneina . Stopping the UAE support will weaken the RSF militia, a first step in dismantling the militia and building a unified sudanese army. Not long ago, The RSF leader rejected the integration of his troops into the national army several times and even threatened to send the whole country into chaos if requested to do so, Indeed, the RSF leader launched this war when he sensed the calls for integration were rising, eliminating the RSF funding sources will also be hugely beneficial to the global peace and order, for instance, Dagalo visited Russia and openly advocated of its unjust invasion to Ukraine, he also threatened to Europe with an influx of immigrants if it does not back his 2019 military coup.
The U.S. government, hitherto, is prioritizing its commercial and military relations with the UAE over the interest of the Sudanese people. Congress should not follow this path and push to stop the UAE from funding the destruction of Sudan and the hope of its people for a democratic, stable and peaceful country.