UN members have failed to name the UAE as the driving force behind the Sudan war despite ample evidence. At a long UN security meeting on 24 August, only Sudan’s national government named the Gulf state as the culprit. The rest — including the UAE itself — referred only to ‘external actors’ fueling the war.
Yet the UAE is widely accepted to be arming and supplying the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia which has been linked to various atrocities.
🇺🇳🇸🇩 In a three-hour UN Security Council briefing on Sudan, convened to weigh expanding the arms embargo across the entire country, not a single speaker other than the representative from Sudan itself named the United Arab Emirates as the principal party arming the genocidal… https://t.co/GJ5CtZmshS
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 25, 2026
The UK is deeply implicated in the horrors. Drop Site News reported:
The United Kingdom’s representative said fighting was “fueled by armed supplies from within and beyond the region,” naming no one.
In a bizarre twist, the UAE representative also called for an end to external interference, urging an end to:
all forms of foreign support to the belligerent parties, without any exception.
Drop Site New added:
Every weapon that enters the Sudan keeps it away from peace and from the protection of civilians.
Sudan’s grinding war
The three-year war has killed thousands and displaced millions. The RSF, backed by the UAE, is fighting the Sudanese government, with gold interests and regional influence at stake.
Numerous foreign actors, including the UK, have caused the war to fester through active participation and/or outright passivity. Israel, too, is a major player in the war.
The war in Sudan is theoretically between the Arab-majority RSF and the Sudanese government. But foreign states pursuing their own interests are backing the combatants.
Egypt backs the government, alongside Russia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Israel has backed both sides at different times.
The RSF has killed Sudanese civilians in vast numbers. Some estimates say 150,000 people have died and more than 10 million civilians have been displaced by fighting.
Fighting continued as the UN session took place. Sudan-based reporter @BSonblast reported that both government forces and RSF deployed drones – which have become a major feature of the war – in strikes across the country.
Today’s quick update [Aug 24]:
– SAF drone strikes reported in Nyala, South Darfur, targeting RSF positions in the area.
– RSF drone shot down over Kurmuk, Blue Nile State. #KeepEyesOnSudan pic.twitter.com/BpKnHkia5S
— Munchkin (@BSonblast) August 25, 2026
In March the Canary reported that the UK downgraded and sidelined its own atrocity monitoring protocols with regard to Sudan. This helped compound what is now clearly an active genocide. That genocide is largely being carried out by a militia backed by the UK’s Gulf ally and arms trade customer UAE.
One day, somewhere down the line, the UAE-UK relationship will come under closer scrutiny. The Sudanese people remain trapped between competing regional and global forces with few places to turn.
Featured image via the Canary