The war in Sudan between the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces is closing in on its second year, millions are displaced, and thousands have been killed, in addition to severe damage to infrastructure. However, this war is also sustained by external actors pursuing their interests in the country. The UAE, the main backer of the RSF militia with money and arms, has also been lobbying government decision makers; its effort has succeeded several times in shaping the foreign policy of these countries towards Sudan, but there are many voices that, hitherto, remain independent.

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. In 2017, the Sudanese parliament passed a law legitimizing its activities, over the years, the RSF militia committed countless crimes and atrocities during the ongoing war, 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 during the ongoing war.

For many years, the UAE has been supporting the RSF militia with weapons, money, and even foreign fighters. This support significantly increased after the outbreak of the war. The UAE has strong economic and political interests in Sudan that it assumes 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, its traditional political foe, to power.

The impact of the UAE funding to the RSF militia has been disastrous; it enabled the militia to sustain its war in Sudan and commit several massacres and genocides in the Darfur,  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.

To wage its war in Sudan, the UAE had to influence Western countries or even neutralize its policy makers to align with its goals, and prevent them from taking any action that could negatively affect its plan in Sudan. 

In the UK, the UAE pushed its leaders to suppress any criticism of its role in the Sudan’s war, the UAE even cancelled ministerial meetings in the UK when it did not defend itself in the face of accusations of its support to the militia, which let the UK deputy prime minister make a secretive trip to the UAE reduce the tension, a step shows how heavy the UAE invested in lobbying the UK government to advance its interests in this War. Moreover, in May 2023, a Dubai-based private equity firm facilitated lobbying the UK  parliament for the RSF militia to disinform its members about its violations on the ground.

The UAE also sought to influence policymakers in the U.S. A recent investigative report exposed that hired several lobbying firms to mainly to reach out to congress members, such as Sara Jacobs, who are working to halt the U.S. arms sales because of the UAE’s involvement in Sudan, reportedly, the UAE also mobilized lobbyist to counter and sanctions due to its role in arming the militia,  during the ongoing visit to the U.S. the UAE national security advisor secretly met with Trump’s officials to discuss blocking any move by the ICJ to investigate the RSF leaders in addition to shield the UAE from any sanctions over its support to the RSF.

In Africa, the UAE has been seeking a new African Union commission to influence its members to keep its interests in Sudan. Moreover, the UAE leveraged its economic ties with countries such as Chad and Kenya to push them to join its camp in the war by transferring arms to the militia and hosting its parallel government.

Despite the substantial lobbying efforts, strong voices have emerged against the UAE and its role in Sudan. For instance, the U.S. Treasury Department recently sanctioned the RSF leader and several front companies associated with the militia. Additionally, members of the U.S. Congress introduced a bill to block arms sales to the UAE until it halts its support for the militia. In the U.K., a parliament member publicly urged the government to uphold international law and cease arms sales to the UAE due to its funding of the RSF militia. EU parliament members have also called for considering sanctions against entities in the UAE found complicit in supporting the militia. Moreover, the African Union rejected and condemned the RSF parallel government that the UAE backs and warned it could lead to the country’s partition. The standard, a leading local newspaper in Kenya,  described the RSF leader on its cover page as the butcher who committed several genocides in Darfur and cannot be trusted for any peace role. In April 2025, Northwestern University awarded the New York newspaper the prize for courage in journalism for their role in covering the War in Sudan and exposing the UAE arms supply to the country. 

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