Above photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.
The UAE-backed RSF militia reportedly massacred 460 people at a hospital in Darfur on Wednesday.
Sudan has urged the UK to end arms sales to the UAE, following reports that a Dubai-backed militia accused of genocide in Darfur has been equipped with British weapons.
Sudan said in a report provided to the UN Security Council that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an anti-government Sudanese militia, has received British small-arms targeting systems and engines for military vehicles.
Reports have surfaced in recent days of RSF militiamen massacring some 2,000 civilians in El-Fasher, after taking control of the city in the Darfur region in southwest Sudan.
Satellite imagery showed pools of blood and bodies resulting from the massacre, while videos showed RSF militants executing civilians, including a wounded man surrounded by blood-stained corpses at a Saudi-funded hospital.
The World Health Organization (WHO) cited reports claiming as many as 460 patients and staff were massacred at the hospital.
Sudan’s Ambassador to the UK, Babikir Elamin, told the Telegraph that UAE support for the RSF militia was “the single most important element in prolonging and enabling this genocide.”
Elamin called on Britain to “investigate” the reports that its weapons and equipment were being used by the RSF to carry out “heinous atrocities.”
The UAE’s support of the RSF is reportedly driven by a desire to extract raw materials, including agricultural crops and precious metals, such as gold, from Sudan.
When questioned whether the UK would cut off weapons sales to the UAE over its support for the RSF, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, stated only that Britain had “extremely strong controls on arms exports” and “will continue to take that immensely seriously.”
MP Monica Harding of the Liberal Democrats said that the possibility that British weapons were being used to carry out atrocities in Sudan was “horrific.”
“The UK must cease all arms sales to the UAE immediately until we can confirm, without a doubt, that no British weapons are going via the UAE to the RSF,” she stated.
Since 2019, the UK has exported more than £1 billion-worth ($1.33 billion) of arms to the UAE, according to government data.
The number of dead from the war in Sudan is unclear. In January, the New York Times (NYT) reported that an estimated 150,000 had been killed and 11 million displaced from their homes.
