Sudan accuses UAE of 'manipulating global forums' to shield RSF

A damaged army tank is seen on the street, almost one year into the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Omdurman, Sudan, April 7, 2024. (Photo: El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters)

By Bashir Mbuthia
Sunday, July 6, 2025

Sudan referenced the recent Non-Aligned Movement meetings at the expert level in New York, where it claims the UAE delegation attempted to exclude expressions of solidarity with Sudan and resist any labelling of the RSF as a rebel militia.

Sudan has accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of manipulating international narratives around the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a group that emerged from the Janjaweed militia and has been linked to widespread human rights abuses during the country's ongoing civil war.

In a statement issued by Sudan's Foreign Ministry on Saturday, Khartoum condemned the UAE, which it has accused of financing RSF in the past, of systematically distorting the conversation around RSF and shielding it from international condemnation.

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"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns the frantic hostile efforts of the Abu Dhabi regime, the regional sponsor of the terrorist Janjaweed militia, in international forums against Sudan, as an extension of its ongoing aggression against the Sudanese people, their national state, and their economic, cultural, and historical assets, through the militia of genocide," the statement reads.

Further, Sudan referenced the recent Non-Aligned Movement meetings at the expert level in New York, where it claims the UAE delegation attempted to exclude expressions of solidarity with Sudan and resist any labelling of the RSF as a rebel militia.

"The Ministry has monitored the deplorable actions of the Abu Dhabi regime's delegation during the recent meetings of the Non-Aligned Movement at the expert level in New York last week, aimed at excluding the text expressing solidarity with Sudan from the draft statement and avoiding describing the terrorist militia as a rebel entity against national legitimacy," the statement read.

According to Sudan, the campaign is not limited to the Non-Aligned Movement. Similar actions have reportedly occurred during recent sessions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul and meetings of the Council of the League of Arab States, where Sudan claims the UAE has repeatedly sought to block any statements condemning RSF actions or implicating the UAE in war crimes.

Sudan also alleged that the UAE delegation attempted to introduce text referencing a so-called 'parallel government' at the meeting, a move Khartoum has described as a blatant attempt to legitimize an alternative power structure that lacks support from any major international institution.

"These exposed actions confirm the organic relationship between the Abu Dhabi regime and the terrorist militia, portraying it as a rogue regime that violates international norms and laws, as well as the traditions and ethics of collective diplomacy, and provide further evidence of that regime's insistence on its malicious interventions in Sudan's internal affairs," Sudan said.

Additionally, Sudan referenced international media reports, including a recent investigative piece by The New York Times, which allegedly revealed how the UAE hosts RSF leadership and manages its operations from its territory.

"These efforts corroborate what international media has revealed about the Abu Dhabi regime's hosting of the militia's leadership and its full supervision of all its activities, as detailed in the recent investigative report by The New York Times in this regard," said Sudan.

Subsequently, urged international bodies to take a firmer stance against what it called the UAE's "malicious interventions in Sudan's internal affairs."

"The Ministry calls on the international community, including its states and organizations, to prevent the Abu Dhabi regime from using international forums to encourage impunity and protect the terrorism and genocide embodied by the Janjaweed militia and its regional sponsor," said the Foreign Ministry.