Calling Out the UAE for its Role in the Destruction of Sudan
Eric Reeves, May 10, 2025
(last updated May 13, 2025; all posts about reports on UAE support for the Rapid Support Forces appear numbered below, earliest to most recent)
For well over a year now, the world has had clear and overwhelming evidence of #UAE complicity in the violent destruction of #Sudan by the Rapid Support Forces (#RSF). Clear to all who would only look, the UAE has effectively supported a campaign of ruthless atrocity crimes. Regularly and prominently reported, this complicity has been shamelessly denied by the ruthless, expansionary regime of UAE strongman Mohamed bin #Zayed.
Beginning today, I will be posting on my column in Twitter/X (@SudanReeves), seriatim, a “bibliography” of UAE complicity, providing links and key excerpts from the most authoritative reporting by the world’s finest human rights groups, newspapers, and policy journals. The immediate occasion is the recent report from Amnesty International, but subsequent posts will include reporting from:
Reuters
The Guardian
The New York Times
BBC
Middle East Eye
Foreign Policy (journal)
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab
Human Rights Watch
UN agencies and country-specific reports to the Security Council
Many on-line sources, including: Radio Dabanga and Sudan Tribune
While the UAE’s motives in denying the damning findings of this extraordinary assemblage of highly authoritative reporting are obvious, what is far less clear is why Western nations fail to hold this brutal regime to account—other than for the most expedient of reasons.
The U.S. is particularly culpable, the more so since reporting makes clear that there has been a full understanding within both the Biden and Trump administrations that U.S. silence itself is complicity in the barbaric destructiveness of the RSF. Advisors are quoted in several reports that make this silent complicity undeniable.
Justifications made by pointing to security arrangements between the U.S. and UAE betray a willingness to ignore the overwhelming threat to Sudan’s security for which the UAE is largely responsible. Although I can myself propose nothing organized or coordinated, my greatest hope for Sudan is that international citizenry finds the ways—and there are many—for pressuring the UAE to halt its deadly role in Sudan. We do know that the UAE has been able to seduce countless Western commercial enterprises, construction products, investments of all sorts, banking arrangements, and the presence of prominent sports and entertainment events—securing from some of these a permanent connections to the UAE. Western tourism is also a significant part of the UAE economy.
A cursory search will find:
COMMERCIAL BRANDS
Fashion and lifestyle brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Charles & Keith, Skechers, ALDO, Crocs, Nine West, Calvin Klein, and Aéropostale
Hundreds of Starbucks Coffee stores
Western equipment of all sorts, from kitchen appliances to heavy construction equipment
Grainger Tools
Altogether, some 1,500 U.S. firms have a presence in UAE, from Boeing and IBM to Microsoft and Google
French firms have a significant and growing presence in the UAE, with over 600 French subsidiaries operating across the Emirates
UK firms operate in the UAE, with over 5,000 British companies having a presence. These include BP, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, HSBC, and Shell
BILATERAL TRADE WITH WESTERN COUNTRIES
The U.S., France, and the UK are major suppliers of advanced military equipment and weaponry (often re-exported by the UAE, as to the RSF) Total bilateral trade between the U.S. and the UAE last year was more than $34 billion
With France the figure was €8.5 billion
With the UK the figure was £24 billion
For the EU as a whole, the figure was over $67 billion)
The U.S. Commercial Service has two offices in the
UAE “SPORTS-WASHING”
Grand Prix racing Cycling and tennis events Professional golfing events
The 2024 USA Basketball Men’s National Team
NBA basketball games
FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (2024)
(Manchester City, an English Premier League club, is owned by the Abu Dhabi United)
Also cricket, horseracing, polo and others
ENTERTAINMENT
Western entertainment, including: top popular bands and big name pop stars, dancing, classical music, stage performers
SeaWorld
A Disney Theme Part (in progress)
Warner Bros. has a presence on Yas Island (UAE)
It is also notable that the UAE plays a powerful role in OPEC, and is one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The UAE is a member of the UN and several of its specialized agencies, as well as the World Bank, IMF, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Life under the highly repressive Emirati regime is comfortable for the rich and obedient. There is no concern for the ghastly realities of life in Sudan. This must change.
[1] May 10, 2025
Link to Amnesty International report of May 7, 2025: amnestyusa.org/press-releases
[2] May 11, 2025 (excerpts)
SPECIAL REPORT: RSF Heavy Artillery in Range of Zamzam IDP Camp as Civilians Flee | 13 December 2024. SPECIAL REPORT: https://files-profile.medicine.yale.edu/documents/1e51d86e-8d5b-4243-8f39-df76159db6b8
The Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab has provided much of the most authoritative and detailed reporting on the nature and provenance of weapons used by the Rapid Support Forces (#RSF). In this particular report they establish beyond reasonable doubt that the terribly destructive artillery used by the RSF in its siege of El #Fasher and its assaults on #Zamzam IDP camp is a #Chinese-made howitzer, acquired and exported by the United Arab Emirates (#UAE) to the RSF.
[3] May 12, 2025 (excerpts)
A Dec. ‘24 Reuters report reveals in great detail much of what we know of how weapons from the UAE reach the Rapid Support Forces (#RSF) in #Sudan: “Dozens of UAE flights head to airstrip #UN says supplies arms to Sudan rebels” https://www.reuters.com/world/uae-flights-flood-airstrip-un-says-supplies-weapons-sudan-rebels-2024-12-12/
This is the third installment of an ongoing bibliographic series comprising the most important reporting on the large-scale and authoritatively researched transfer of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, logistical support, and cash to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces. What the excerpts from all make clear is that the UAE is deeply complicit in the continuing genocide. All items are being archived at www.sudanereeves.org, which is updated daily.
[4] May 13, 2025 (excerpts)
The Guardian, July 7, ‘24 ““Smoking gun” evidence points to UAE involvement in #Sudan civil war’ Exclusive: Discovery of Emirati passports in wreckage suggest covert boots on the ground, despite Gulf state’s denials theguardian.com/global-develop
Evidence of UAE complicity in the violence destroying #Sudan been accumulating for well over a year. Yet even the “smoking gun” evidence referred to in this article has not been enough to move the international community to call out or punish the UAE’s complicity in massive crimes against humanity and—in #Darfur—#genocide. This is unspeakably shameful. The above the fourth third installment of an ongoing bibliographic series comprising the most important reporting on the large-scale and authoritatively researched transfer of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, logistical support, and cash to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (#RSF). What the excerpts from all make clear is that the UAE is deeply complicit in the continuing genocide. All items are being archived at sudanereeves.org, which is updated daily.
[5]
Last year Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (#HRL) suggested how the #RSF continues its resupply, despite significant interdiction by the Joint Forces of supply routes from #Libya & #Chad. The #Ilyushin II-76 is one of the largest cargo planes in the world, with airdrop capability
This is the fifth installment of an ongoing bibliographic series comprising the most important reporting on the large-scale and authoritatively researched transfer of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, logistical support, and cash to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces. What the excerpts from all make clear is that the UAE is deeply complicit in the continuing genocide. All items are being archived at www.sudanereeves.org, which is updated daily.
June 12, 2024
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) has identified an Ilyushin (IL-76) flying within approximately 1.7 kilometers of Sudan’s El-Fasher region over Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) territory in satellite imagery on the morning of 11 June 2024. The same model of aircraft (IL-76) is reported to be used for lethal aid transfers by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the RSF for flights to locations in Chad, HRL staff say in a new report.
The aircraft was visible in sequential satellite imagery taken within approximately one minute of each other on 11 June. The IL-76, captured in satellite imagery, is assessed to have flown approximately 12 kilometers to the northeast of its location in the previous image taken approximately one minute before. Yale HRL has not yet identified the flight number but is continuing to investigate this aircraft. The origin and identification of this IL-76 are unknown at this time. The Ilyushin (IL-76) (Candid) is a versatile cargo plane used for multipurpose delivery that can include resupply of heavy munitions, artillery, light-armored vehicles, and refueling to remote areas in air drops. Many militaries use the IL-76 as a tactical airlifter for material, vehicles, and personnel to support active combat operations.
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