UNITED NATIONS — The Sudanese government accused the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday of fueling the African country’s 14-month war by supplying weapons to a rival paramilitary force. The UAE has dismissed the accusation as “ridiculous” and called it “a shameful abuse by one of the warring parties.”
The clash took place during a UN Security Council meeting, where Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee warned that atrocities were being committed along ethnic lines in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
She urged an immediate ceasefire in North Darfur’s capital El Fasher is under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces“to prevent further atrocities, protect critical infrastructure and alleviate the suffering of civilians.”
Sudanese Ambassador Al-Harith Mohamed accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of “destructively launching” their war with the Sudanese army and attacking civilians, aided by weapons from the UAE.
He said Sudan has evidence that the UAE is supplying weapons and that the government will submit a dossier on the UAE’s actions to the International Criminal Court.
UAE Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab said these were “false accusations” and demanded to know why the Sudanese government is refusing to return to the peace talks.
Abushahab turned to Sudan’s ambassador, who sat next to him at the horseshoe-shaped Security Council table: “You must stop making grandstanding in international forums like this and instead take responsibility for ending the conflict you started .”
UN experts monitoring an arms embargo in Darfur reported in January “credible” evidence that the UAE was sending weapons from northern Chad to the Rapid Support Forces several times a week. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Tuesday reiterated a US call on all “external actors to stop fueling and prolonging this conflict, and enabling these atrocities, by to send weapons to Sudan.”
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sudan’s Mohamed urged the council to “go a step further by naming and shaming the United Arab Emirates.”
Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the UN humanitarian agency, told the council that the lives of 800,000 civilians trapped in El Fasher “are at stake”, reiterating the risk of mass atrocities and warning that violence in the encircled city ’is just the tip’. of the iceberg.”
She said indiscriminate bombings are affecting millions of people in Darfur, sexual violence is rampant and “famine is imminent.” Nearly 5 million people face food insecurity emergencies and more than 2 million people in 41 “hunger hotspots are at high risk of falling into catastrophic hunger in the coming weeks,” Wosornu said.
Twenty years ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, especially by the infamous Arab Janjaweed militias, against populations who identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million people were driven from their homes.
In mid-April 2023, Sudan plunged into conflict again, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders erupted in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions, including Darfur. According to the UN, more than 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were formed from Janjaweed fighters by then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for 30 years before coming to power. overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s.
Last Thursday, the Security Council adopted a resolution and demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt the siege of El Fasher – the only capital in Darfur that it does not control. The council also urged the paramilitary force and the Sudanese army “to seek an immediate cessation of hostilities.”