This week a United Nations fact-finding report classified the actions of the Rapid Support Forces in el Fasher of October 2025 as showing hallmarks of genocide.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are a paramilitary group in Sudan, warring with the rule ruling Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The RSF is being supported militarily, financially and diplomatically by the United Arab Emirates. An Amnesty International investigation found that the UAE is exporting Chinese weaponry to the RSF, which is an outright breach of the UN instated arms embargo, due to the RSF’s genocidal activities in Sudan. The arms found in the battlefield of Sudan have been identified as specific weapons that have been exported from China to the UAE, only, confirming the UAE’s participation in the RSF’s genocide. Human Rights Watch also documented arms in possession of the RSF, previously used by the UAE’s military. HRW also reported on Colombian media investigating a UAE based company recruiting and deploying former Colombian military personnel to Darfur, in order to train them to fight in the RSF. This is not unusual for the UAE, as Amnesty found that the state has a distinct track record in supplying arms to conflicts where international human rights law is being violated and war crimes are being committee, like this example in Sudan. However, the UAE is a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, the distribution of arms to the RSF, who have been found to commit genocidal acts, is a breach of this treaty and undermines its fundamental objective.
The United Nations has confirmed that the RSF are carrying out ethnically targeted killings. There have been statements, from survivors of RSF attacks, that RSF soldiers specifically target non-Arab communities. RSF militants are said to demand those from the Zaghawa communities to identify themselves, stating that “if we find Zaghawa we will kill them all. We want to eliminate anything black from Darfur.” Additionally to the targeted killings of members of protected ethnic groups, there has been mass sexual violence and systematic weakening of non-Arab groups, through an 18-month siege on el Fasher which caused starvation, deprivation, trauma and confinement, leaving many unable to flee the region when the RSF attacked.
Sudan lies at a politically strategic crossroads geographically, as it links the Red Sea to the Sahel and North to Central Africa, explaining the UAE’s implication in the conflict. Despite multiple organizations finding links between the UAE and the RSF, like Amnesty, the United Nations and the US State Department, the UAE continues to deny any support of the paramilitary group in exchange for political influence of Sudan’s gold resources.
In 2025, Sudan accused the UAE of being complicit in acts of genocide at the International Criminal Court. Both states are parties to the Genocide Convention, but when the UAE ratified the convention, it states a reservation to Article 9, concerning disputing parties resolving their dispute at the ICC. The ICC rules that this reservation is not incompatible with the convention, and is therefore allowed, meaning the Court lacks prima facie jurisdiction and cannot pass a ruling.
The conflict has displaced upwards of 12 million people, claiming thousands of lives, making Sudan one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises. Yet, governments have failed to sanction the UAE for its support of the RSF. The conflict is only getting worse, expanding now to Kordofan, where more civilians will be the target of RSF violence. The United Nations has warned that the RSF act with intent to destroy non-Arab communities in Sudan, and have repeatedly called on the protection of civilians, which falls on deaf RSF ears. The Chair of the UN fact-finding mission stated that “where evidence indicates genocide, the international community has a heightened obligation to prevent, protect and ensure justice is done.” States must sanction the UAE, the RSF is incapable of committing these acts of atrocity without the UAE’s military, financial and political support.
