In an exclusive interview in an undisclosed location, Sky News learns many of the planes landing in South Darfur are allegedly bringing weapons from the Middle Eastern country - something its government vehemently denies.
"In the beginning, it was the Russians - Wagner and the state. Now, they tell me it is the UAE supporting the RSF," says Ahmed*, using an alias to protect his identity.
https://news.sky.com/story/uae-is-m...e-officer-claims-in-secret-interview-13437966"It’s a financial relationship, no more," he said. "The RSF controls areas with large gold mines - Darfur alone has more than four or five gold mines - the UAE is a gold trading hub."
It's awful and an awful read for anyone with the remotest empathy. If you want to put a football related bent on it (and thus be grateful we aren't owned by an oil state), the alleged U.A.E. involvement in the supply of weapons to the RSF is a stain on Manchester City football club that will presumably be completely ignored as well, as is the selective outrage of media figures. But as you hint at: won't, because they have money and power."Sudan's civil war had faded from headlines, but monitors say it's the largest humanitarian crisis in the world"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/el-fasher-darfur-war-1.7652683
But no-one cares. I guess it's time someone found something valuable in the soil in Sudan, so politicians internationally can start caring (and back whoever is most likely to work with them, regardless of the outcome for the population).
It's a good day for cynicism.
Couldn’t agree more.I know quite a few Sudanese who are (I think completely rightly) bitter about the relative lack of attention this gets among Arabs and Muslims, particularly when compared to Palestine but even to Syria/ Lebanon etc.
I’ll keep on saying it, the UAE are scum for perpetrating this conflict.
The paramilitary RSF has intensified its assault on El-Fasher, the last Darfur stronghold still held by the army. Activists say civilians are being slaughtered "in cold blood" as the city turns into an "open-air morgue."
https://www.dw.com/en/sudan-drone-artillery-strike-kills-60-at-refugee-camp/a-74319617The El-Fasher resistance committee said the RSF struck the Dar al-Arqam displacement centre on university grounds twice with drones and eight times with artillery shells. "Children, women and the elderly were killed in cold blood, and many were completely burned,” it said. The committee had earlier reported 30 dead but later raised the toll as bodies were pulled from the rubble.
Reports of ethnically motivated mass killings and other atrocities are emerging from El Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the city in Sudan’s western Darfur region over the weekend.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – accused the RSF of having executed more than 2,000 unarmed civilians in recent days.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...sudan-paramilitary-group-rapid-support-forcesOn Tuesday, the Yale lab said the city “appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti Indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution”. This included what appeared to be “door-to-door clearance operations” in the city, it said.
The U.A.E. is betting on the RSF to help protect Emirati interests in Sudan. The country is strategically located on the Red Sea, where the Sudanese government canceled a $6 billion Emirati port deal last year, and has vast resources of gold, much of which has historically been exported to Dubai. The U.A.E. has invested billions of dollars in the country.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-...a-accused-genocide-found-sudan-united-nations
Amidst ongoing massacres by RSF. Just lining people up and executing them.
International money laundering hub. Also favourite place of many dictators to go and hide after they get kicked out of power. Also global petrol pump. Also Arab state who loves israel.Why aren't any world leaders calling out the UAE on this?
Yes but it has been radio silence almost. Even on Israel there were a few leaders who stood up. Nothing on this, at least from what I have seen.International money laundering hub. Also favourite place of many dictators to go and hide after they get kicked out of power. Also global petrol pump. Also Arab state who loves israel.
TBH i only came to know about this conflict this week. Didn't even know it was happening.Yes but it has been radio silence almost. Even on Israel there were a few leaders who stood up. Nothing on this, at least from what I have seen.
Why aren't any world leaders calling out the UAE on this?
Why aren't any world leaders calling out the UAE on this?
Why aren't any world leaders calling out the UAE on this?
https://www.reuters.com/world/afric...udanese-city-falls-paramilitaries-2025-10-31/Fighters riding camels rounded up a couple of hundred men near the Sudanese city of al-Fashir at the weekend and brought them to a reservoir, shouting racial slurs before starting to shoot, according to a man who said he was among them.
I posted this article on the previous page but I see it’s now behind the paywall, so here it is again - Lineages of Genocide in SudanIt's a shitshow by all accounts. I'd like to learn more about it from a @2cents type? Just overview and state of play if they're aware. I'm at the periphery of this one but seems as bad as Gaza.
The humanitarian situation is probably worse than in Gaza, and with even less perspective for improvement, be it short-term or long-term.It's a shitshow by all accounts. I'd like to learn more about it from a @2cents type? Just overview and state of play if they're aware. I'm at the periphery of this one but seems as bad as Gaza.
Because nobody outside the direct region gives a shit about Sudan (no resources, no international influence, no politically influential diaspora), and because there is no clear solution (all warring parties are terrible).Why aren't any world leaders calling out the UAE on this?
Exactly.Please don't take it personally, but I'd imagine also for similar reasons this thread is only 3 pages long after two years.
Cheers.I posted this article on the previous page but I see it’s now behind the paywall, so here it is again - Lineages of Genocide in Sudan
It’s a good background on the forces driving Sudan’s many conflicts, with a focus on this current one.
In a significant development, the Egyptian and Turkish armies have begun cooperating directly over Sudan, marking a rare convergence between two regional rivals. According to a high-level Egyptian security source, the coordination focuses on supporting the SAF to contain RSF territorial gains and stabilise Darfur.
It is very disturbing how the UAE views the Horn as some sort of fiefdom only good for sheep, gold and slaves, as if we need a repeat of the Arab slave trade.
Even more disturbing how the African Union and regional bodies have proven themselves useless to help solve this crisis, which is why the Sahel (adjacent to Darfur, coincidence) is an unresolved hotspot and Tigray happened under their noses.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary?
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I’d like to go to another region – apologize for that.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Which one?
QUESTION: Sudan.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, yeah. It’s terrible.
QUESTION: Exactly, and I saw the communique that the G7 put out today. I mean, what is your take? Is there anything that can be done right now? Because the situation —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Unlike the Caribbean, which anybody who told you that was discussed is not being honest with you – not a single person brought it up in any of those – and we had three meetings with the whole group of four – that was discussed, and we’re very concerned. As you know, we’ve been sponsoring this Quad initiative along with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, and I think the fundamental problem we have is that the RSF agrees to things and then never – never follows through with it, so now what you have is a calamity on your hands.
And so we’ve – I had meetings on this yesterday. We discussed it multiple times with multiple countries today, and I think something needs to be done to cut off the weapons and the support that the RSF is getting as they continue with their advances. I think it’s telling – the humanitarian groups are telling us that some of the levels of malnutrition and suffering that they’re seeing from some of these people who have been able to flee is unprecedented, they’ve said. They’ve recorded things they’ve never recorded before, and I think even more troubling is that they didn’t have the number of refugees they expected to receive because they assume many of them are either dead or so sick and malnourished they can’t move anymore. So what’s happening there is horrifying.
We have worked I think all the way back to July and August on this Quad because there are countries involved in helping these elements on the ground fighting, and we share many of the same concerns that others do about how that could turn into a nest for jihadist and terrorist activity. But the solution to it is not to fight a war where civilians literally are being targeted for rape, sexual violence, and murder, and that’s what happening.
QUESTION: But the UAE —
QUESTION: What’s your assessment on the UAE’s role in this conflict?
QUESTION: But the UAE is still supplying them with drones, Chinese drones.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, so we’re working hard – we know who the parties are that are involved. These things – that’s why they’re part of the Quad along with other countries involved. And so I can just tell you at the highest levels of our government that case is being made and that pressure is being applied to the relevant parties. I don’t want to get into calling anybody out at a press conference today, because what we want is a good outcome here. This needs to stop. I mean, they’re clearly receiving assistance from outside that’s allowing them – and clearly that assistance isn’t just coming from some country that’s paying for it. It’s also coming from countries that are allowing their territory to be used to ship it and transport it. So that – in order for this to be solved, that needs to be addressed.
I don’t know if you saw the RSF a few days ago agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire, but they don’t intend to comply with it. And when you raise the issue of these atrocities, they always hide behind the argument that this is rogue elements. Well, it’s not rogue elements. It’s – they’re doing it systematically, and it’s something that we have taken very seriously and are doing everything we can to bring the relevant countries to the table to stop it. It needs to end.
QUESTION: Would you support the – would you support the Senate push, bipartisan Senate push, to label the RSF either a Foreign Terrorist Organization or SDTG?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I mean, if it would be helpful in bringing this to an end, we would. I haven’t seen that proposal. I know some senators discussed it with me months ago. But in the end, we just want this – this needs to stop. And I think unfortunately what’s happening here is the RSF has concluded that they’re winning and they want to keep going. And by going – they’re not just fighting a war, which war alone is bad enough. They are – they’re committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities, just horrifying atrocities, against women, children, innocent civilians of the most horrific kind. And it needs to end immediately.
And we’re going to do everything we can to bring it to an end, and we’ve encouraged partner nations to join us in this fight. And we’re not going to let the Quad process that we’ve set up be a shield that people hide behind and say, “Well, we’re involved with the Quad. We’re trying to solve it.” We need actionable results, and they need to happen very quickly; otherwise, what’s already a travesty is going to get far worse.
QUESTION: Can I ask you more specifically about your assessment of the scale of the atrocities? I mean, we heard these reports recently of 460 patients in a hospital, civilians, being killed by the RSF.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, those are the ones that can get out.
QUESTION: Yeah. I mean, what – do you have an assessment of the scale overall of what’s been committed in El Fasher?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I don’t know about numbers. I can tell you that the one thing that I think was most shocking to us is that they anticipated receiving thousands of refugees, and they didn’t. So obviously, these aren’t people that are happy living there after a year of siege against the city. There’s a reason why they didn’t come out. And we fear that the reason why they didn’t come out is because they’re dead or because they’re so sick and so famished that they can’t move. So I think it’s even worse – not that refugee flows in crisis is a positive thing, but when the refugees don’t come and you know they would otherwise, you have these suspicions that they’re either dead or about to die. And that is just what really is weighing on us right now.
That's actually a pretty good conversation for a press conference. (Maybe my expectations of anything of the current US administration are that low?) And it's probably the right way forward to back the Sudan government. Not that they're good guys, but 'not the RSF' seems like a good start to anything. I guess for this sort of international initiative, you just have to hope they find a way to get the UAE on their side...?
