The bloody aftermath of the takeover of the city of El Fasher by Sudanese paramilitaries has put a spotlight back on the alleged role of the United Arab Emirates in Sudan’s metastasising civil war.
Arms trafficking monitors, rights groups and Sudan’s army-backed government have repeatedly accused the UAE of funnelling weapons and resources to the Rapid Support Forces.
The militia — whose leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, has since 2023 been locked in a power struggle with his former allies in the Sudanese Armed Forces — was accused by the UN of “mass killings, rape, attacks against humanitarian workers and looting” after overrunning El Fasher last week.