In May 2025, the White House announced the approval of $1.4 billion in arms sales to the UAE. This Gulf country has supported the RSF militia in Sudan, which has committed horrendous crimes and violations in the country. Recently, members of Congress have attempted to block several similar deals, citing the UAE’s involvement in Sudan. Given the ongoing escalation of the war and the destruction it has caused, deterring the UAE from further prolonging this conflict has become crucial. 

The war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has entered its third year – millions are displaced, and thousands have been killed, in addition to severe damage to infrastructure. This war is sustained by external actors who are pursuing their limited interest in the country, the UAE, the main backer of the RSF militia with money and arms. 

The RSF emerged primarily from the 2013 restructuring of the notorious Janjaweed militia. Its goal was to support the central government’s counterinsurgency operations in Darfur and South Kordofan and in 2017, the Sudanese parliament passed a law legitimizing its activities. Over the years, the RSF militia has committed countless crimes and atrocities, including the destruction of villages, the killing of protesters, sexual violations and rape, mass killings, unlawful detentions, the targeting of hospitals and churches, and attacks on journalists and media institutions, in addition to ethnic-based killings and recruiting children as soldiers.

For many years, the UAE has been supporting the RSF militia with weapons and money, and recently, with foreign fighters. This support significantly increased after the outbreak of the war. The UAE has strong economic and political interests in Sudan that it believes will be secured once the militia takes over power. These interests include exploiting gold and agricultural resources, seizing strategic ports in the Red Sea, and preventing the return of Islamists to power. 

The impact of the UAE funding to the RSF militia has been devastating; it enabled the militia to sustain its war in Sudan and commit several massacres and genocides in the Darfur region. According to the UN experts, it’s estimated that 15 thousand members of the Massalit tribe were killed by the militia based on their ethnicity. In other parts of Darfur, women were raped and abducted, and children were piled up and shot to death. For months, Al-fashir city, the main refugee area in Darfur, has been besieged by the militia. 

UAE involvement in Sudan is increasingly jeopardizing Western interests due to the prolonged conflict and the potential ascendancy of the RSF militia. Examples include the surge in unauthorized migration to Europe, Wagner’s expanding presence in Sudan, gold trafficking to Russia to circumvent sanctions, and pressure on the Sudanese military to grant Iran and Russia naval facilities in the Red Sea, providing these nations with strategic positioning to destabilize the region and interfere with commercial shipping.

Three bills by Congress members aim to block the U.S. arms sales to the UAE until it stops backing the RSF militia:

• In January 2024, Senator Ilhan Omar introduced a joint resolution to block $650 arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for violating the UN arms embargo in Darfur, but the U.S. government moved on and approved the arms sales. 
• In May 2024, Sara Jacobs and Van Hollen, Democratic members of Congress, led a bill to prohibit arms sales to the UAE until the government can certify that the UAE is not providing material support to the militia. In December 2024, the two senators announced they received an assurance from the UAE that it would not continue to support the RSF militia, but just in January 2025, it was discovered that the UAE lied about its commitment. Consequently, the bill has now been reintroduced to Congress and is waiting for a vote. 
• Recently, Rep Gregory Meeks introduced a bill titled “U.S. Engagement in Sudanese Peace Act.” Its goal is to block the transfer of U.S. arms to all sides that are engaged in the Sudan war, including the UAE. While currently he has succeeded in putting the U.S. arms sales to the UAE on hold. While Donald Trump moved on and agreed to this new arms deal with the UAE, Senator Meeks reiterated his commitment to block it. 

This move by Congress is backed by International rights groups such as Refugees International and American Friends Service Committee started campaigns to push Congress to block the arms sales to the UAE. 

Indeed, the UAE has been lobbying the U.S. government to counter all these congressional efforts; for instance, the arms sale deal was on the table of discussion between President Trump and Tahnoon bin Zayed, the UAE national security advisor, during their last meeting in Washington, D.C. The UAE is banking on its 1.4 trillion dollars that it committed to the U.S. to influence its final decision on blocking any move by Congress. 

It’s time that Congress should act expeditiously and use its leverage on the UAE to stop arming the RSF militia, end the suffering of the Sudanese people, and prevent the next genocide in Darfur. 

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