More Evidence Revealed on the Role of the UAE in the Sudanese War

Britain and the United States have close ties with the Emirates which is fueling the ongoing horrendous intra-military carnage taking place in the Republic of Sudan

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Tuesday August 18, 2026

Geostrategic Analysis

Since April 15, 2023, the serious disruptions in the military structures and high command within the Republic of Sudan has resulted in the deaths of untold numbers of people, the injury of many more and the displacement several million. 

There has been discussions and debates at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over the role of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Accusations that the UAE is funding, arming and helping to coordinate the military actions of the RSF have been made by numerous entities including the Sudanese government under the leadership of General Abdel Fattah El-Burhan, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council. The trafficking in gold as a strategic metal partially underlines the interests of the UAE and the rebel grouping, the RSF, and its allies in Sudan. 

However, the link extends further into European markets, particularly Britain, as connections between the government of the United Kingdom and the UAE regarding the gold trade has been further exposed by Sky News. Apparently, the British Foreign Office is aware of the ties between the UAE monarchy, the war in Sudan and UK business interests. 

The current war in Sudan has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. An estimated hundreds of thousands have died through warfare and forced depravation. Other have reported serious allegations of assault along with internal as well as external displacement of Sudanese inside and outside the country. 

The internal war within the military has deflected international attention away from the mass democratic movement which had swept the country during the early months of 2019. These efforts by the youth, professional groupings and the working class was immediately attacked by the military apparatus backed by the United States, the Persian Gulf monarchies and other allied states such as the UK and members of the European Union. 

Sudan People Suffering Immensely Due to Imperialist Machination

The period between mid-2019 through April 2023 was characterized by the deliberate betrayal of the aspirations of the Sudanese masses by the military in conjunction with imperialism and its operatives throughout the Horn of Africa and West Asia. This set of circumstances was typified by the former Interim Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok when he colluded with US President Donald Trump during the closing months of his first term to “normalize” relations with the State of Israel in exchange for Sudan being taken off the list of sponsors of “state terrorism.” 

Sudan in its early independence phase in 1958 passed the “Israeli Boycott Act” prohibiting trade between the country and the apartheid state. Consequently, even during this recent phase of a purported transition towards democracy the US and its allies were working feverishly to prevent a genuine political revolution in Sudan. 

In a report by Sky News published on August 18, it notes that:

“The role of the United Arab Emirates and its American and British allies is under increasing scrutiny. The UAE claims it is not involved in any military sense in the war in Sudan, but fewer and fewer people believe them, and evidence is stacking up against those claims. Nathaniel A. Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, said, ‘The UK has not once called on the United Arab Emirates to stop arming the [paramilitary Rapid Support Forces] RSF with extremely advanced weapons, including a tier one drone system, including electronic jamming, missile launch and suicide drones. It was those drone systems and artillery systems that we know US intelligence concurs came from the United Arab Emirates, which allowed Rapid Support Forces to take out Al Fashir. And slaughter tens of thousands of civilians.’ Al Fashir witnessed a genocidal massacre a year ago.” (https://news.sky.com/story/sudan-war-the-uaes-role-in-this-conflict-is-under-increasing-scrutiny-and-so-is-britains-13572327)

Direct military support from the UK to the UAE, which is being transferred to the RSF in Sudan, is perpetuating the atrocities being committed in Darfur and North Kordofan. RSF soldiers have been driven out of some previously held areas such as the capital of Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. Reports from the frontlines in North Kordofan indicate that the SAF have recaptured territory from the RSF. 

However, there has been a reluctance on the part of the British government to cut ties with the UAE over the Sudan question. The Sky News investigation charged that refined gold products originating in Sudan are being sold in retail outlets in Britain. 

Despite the fact that a few people have been cited in their illegal dealing in Sudanese gold in Britain, much more could be done. Overall Sudan produced over 70 metric tons of gold during 2025. The British government, even according to Sky News, values its relations with the UAE more than addressing its role in the Sudanese war. 

Another source monitoring the situation in Sudan and the involvement of imperialist-allied forces says:

“This latest horrific news coincides with the revelation that documents seen by the UN show that UK military equipment exported to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been found in the hands of the RSF. The equipment includes military training equipment produced by Militec in Mid Glamorgan, and engines for UAE-made Nimr armoured vehicles, manufactured by the UK subsidiary of US company Cummins Inc. There has been overwhelming evidence over the past two years of UAE arms supplies to the RSF, but this marks the first time UK equipment has been found in Sudan. (https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/british-weapons-are-fuelling-genocide-in-sudan)

Sudan is a former British colony acquired during the so-called “scramble for Africa” in the late 19th century. The current post-colonial turmoil in Sudan cannot be properly understood without examining the history of British colonialism in the North African states of Egypt and Sudan. 

The character of British imperialism laid the groundwork for two civil wars in Sudan. The first between 1955 to 1972, reinforced the divisions which were orchestrated in the colonial period. Later, between 1983 and 2011, the second civil war in Sudan created the conditions for the partition of the continent’s largest geographic nation-state. 

Since 2011, when the Republic of South Sudan was created, both states have suffered economic, political and security crises. Internal fighting and a steep decline in the legitimacy of state institutions has hampered the capacity for rebuilding. 

The Role of the US

Since President Donald Trump reclaimed the White House in January 2025, his administration has often boasted about resolving conflicts around the world. Nonetheless, the reality of the international situation is quite different.

The US and Israel have launched two wars against the Islamic Republic of Iran which remain unresolved. In Palestine, the genocide against the people continues on a daily basis. Lebanon is routinely bombed and occupied by the settler-colonial Israeli state particularly in the southern region of the country. In Ukraine the war proceeds unabated irrespective of the statements by Trump that he could end the Russian Special Military Operation inside this Eastern European state.

Tribune Magazine published in the UK has said of the involvement of Washington in the Sudan genocide:

“The US has been the UAE’s main arms supplier over the years, providing 55 percent of major weapons deliveries according to SIPRI, followed by France at 14 percent. France has major orders from the UAE for Rafale combat aircraft and A-330 MRTT transport/tanker aircraft. But the UAE has also imported drones from Turkey, radar systems from Sweden, and various weapons from 15 other countries over the past decade. The UAE has also been developing its own domestic arms industry, and the state-owned EDGE Group is among the Top 100 arms companies worldwide.” (https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/british-weapons-are-fuelling-genocide-in-sudan)

Resistance to imperialism and zionism by the Islamic Republic of Iran has been devastating to the UAE. These states such as the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia serve as bases for US imperialism and zionism in the entire West Asia region. 

Drones and long-range ballistic missiles from Iran have done severe damage to Pentagon bases in the Gulf states. In addition, multinational corporations which operate businesses in these satellite states in West Asia have lost enormous profits since the initiation of the war on February 28. 

Therefore, when the US and UK attempt to make it appear that they want to end the war in Sudan, these claims are only designed to obfuscate their role in the ongoing destabilization and underdevelopment of Africa. The imperialist states only want to maintain the exploitation of African resources and labor which has gone on for centuries much to the detriment of the majority of workers, farmers and youth in Sudan and across the continent.