UAE arms keep pouring into Sudan as RSF depopulates countryside

Alameen Templeton
Arms financed by the UAE continue pouring unchecked into Sudan as peace talks falter and people suffer daily massacres by Dubai’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary.
The scale of the massacres taking place every day across the country have stunned witnesses, particularly in Gezira and Sennar states in central Sudan, sources have told Middle East Eye.
The UAE and other Gulf states have bought up huge tracts of Sudan’s agricultural land in recent years. Experts are warning it looks as though Sudan is being deliberately depopulated with the purpose of ushering in a new era of agribusiness tied into the global food chains the UAE is forging across the world.
Civilians defenceless
Young women and girls are always a target during the attacks that invariably include rape and sexual assaults. The UAE-backed RSF have also looted property and burned down buildings.
Massacres have also been carried out in White Nile state, while the RSF is besieging major cities in Blue Nile, North Kordofan and, more prominently, el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
Civilians have no one to protect them as the faltering government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are on the back foot and are able to only defend key cities and installations, leaving the rest of the countryside undefended.
Atrocities have occurred before, during and after the RSF sent a delegation in August to Geneva for peace talks. The SAF has been at war with the RSF since 15 April 2023 and did not attend the talks.
And who can blame them. The talks are an almost carbon copy of the Gaza talks, as the SAF finds itself fighting an adversary that is also backed by “mediators” who are knee-deep in the conflict and are providing all the arms and support necessary to continue mass murder.
Presumed impunity
Representatives from the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others, were also present at the August talks. The UAE is the RSF’s main patron.
SAF leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the military would “fight for 100 years” to defeat the RSF. SAF-aligned officials also recently met US officials in Cairo, MEE reports.
Like Israel, the RSF delights in a presumed impunity that holds itself above international humanitarian law and indulges in daily atrocities with free abandon.
Like Israel, it didn’t see any reason to lift its foot off the genocide accelerator as the August “peace talks” occurred. On the same day RSF representatives arrived in Geneva, RSF soldiers massacred 80 people in Sennar state. The paramilitary has been charged with genocide and ethnic cleansing in Darfur in previous decades.
As peace talks continue to falter, people in Sudan face daily massacres perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, according to multiple eyewitnesses who spoke to Middle East Eye.
Young girls, women targeted
The massacres are taking place every day across the country, particularly in Gezira and Sennar states in central Sudan.
During RSF attacks, fighters have also attempted to abduct young women and girls and have raped and sexually assaulted them. They have also looted property and burned down buildings.
The civilian massacres have also been carried out in White Nile state, while the RSF is besieging major cities in Blue Nile, North Kordofan and, more prominently, el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
Unbelievably, the UAE is trying to brush off the RSF’s pusillanimous image on the world stage, as though some neat PR work can sanitise the reek of genocide that follows it everywhere.
The RSF, with the help of international public relations firms based in the UAE, has been posting a series of videos and photos that show it providing services to civilians in Sudan.
Broken promises
On 14 August, during talks in Geneva, the RSF promised to open humanitarian corridors and stop the suffering of civilians.
Almost simultaneously, in Abu Gota, in Gezira state, the RSF attacked Goz el-Naga village, killing dozens of civilians.
Dozens of nearby villages have been attacked over the last week.
MEE says eyewitnesses described full-scale attacks that engulfed entire villages and led to the killing of civilians, the looting of property and crops, and the rape or attempted rape of dozens of girls and young women.
Civilians who fled Goz el-Naga told MEE that local youth had mobilised to defend the area.
Young sacrifice
Osman Ahmed Alamin said the youth of Goz el-Naga had organised, collected weapons and fought to protect their village.
“The youth of the village has been defeated after a strong, brave and noble sacrifice to defend their people. The majority of them have been martyred while they were defending their land and people,” he told MEE.
“We won’t surrender to these militias. We have at least the honour of attempting to defend ourselves and protect our people,” he said.
The Middle Call reports, in Dinder, a town in Sennar state, the RSF tried to coerce young men into joining its ranks.
“The RSF is blackmailing the youth of the villages around Dinder to fight for it in return for food that has already been looted from the stores of the crops in the region,” the local news outlet said.
In White Nile state, the attacks have reached the villages of al-Awag, al-Halba and others, resulting in civilian deaths and the looting.
The army has intensified air strikes on RSF positions, including in the capital, Khartoum, East Darfur, North Darfur, Gezira and Sennar.
Waiting for the dry season
A member of the SAF said the RSF was stalling for time by claiming a commitment to peace.
“The RSF wants to pass the rainy season [March to October, with most rain falling between June and September], which obstructs the movement of its forces due to the inaccessibility of the roads and difficulties to sustain the supply, then it will carry out wide attacks,” the source told MEE.
Sudanese political analyst Elwathig Kameir says the SAF has made significant gains since the August talks, including US recognition of Burhan as the president of Sudan’s sovereign council and de facto head of state, as well as clear US condemnation of RSF atrocities.
He criticised the SAF for boycotting the Geneva talks.
“The Geneva negotiations are not the venue for resolving bilateral relations with the UAE, nor do they require the government to cease its efforts to draw attention to and ultimately end the UAE’s role, nor cease demanding that it bear the lion’s share of compensation for war damages and reconstruction.”