Emirati influencers and an official Israeli state X account have been targeting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on social media, while its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has massacred hundreds of civilians in Sudan’s el-Fasher.
On Sunday, the RSF seized control of el-Fasher, the last city in Darfur to fall into the hands of the paramilitary group. The city and its 260,000 inhabitants had been under siege for more than 500 days.
The RSF carried out mass killings and abuses as it stormed the city, some of which were documented by its own fighters and have been corroborated by satellite imagery.
As many came out on social media to criticise the United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose support for the RSF is well-documented, influencers from the UAE have responded by going after the SAF.
Notably, Israeli accounts, including the country’s official Arabic language account, have also joined in.
Amjad Taha, an Emirati analyst who often appears on western media, has led the charge to link the SAF to the Muslim Brotherhood and to Hamas in Gaza.
Under former President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese military was dominated by religious conservatives who retain some influence within the army.
However, Sudanese of various affiliations and beliefs have backed the SAF – despite its history of coups and military rule – against the RSF.
Earlier this year, in a column for British publication Jewish News, Taha described the SAF as “the Hamas of Africa”.
This week, he repeated the comparison by posting pictures of an Israeli family and a Sudanese family, saying they were both victims of “Muslim Brotherhood-led forces”.
One of the images was of the Bibas family, an Israeli mother and her two children who were taken captive by Hamas on 7 October 2023, and later killed in the Gaza Strip. Hamas says they were killed in an Israeli air strike, while the Israelis accuse the Palestinian movement of killing them.
The other picture depicts a Sudanese family. Taha claims that the family were killed by the SAF after being asked if they belonged to the RSF.
Middle East Eye found that the picture is taken from a video which dates back to at least September.
In the video, gunshots are heard in the background, while a woman is asked where she is from. The timing and location of the video are unclear.
MEE could not find any news reports suggesting the family in question was killed by the SAF.
Israel’s official Arabic account posted the same two pictures and made a very similar point to Taha.
“The terrorism of those who call themselves ‘the Muslim Brotherhood’ is the same savage terrorism everywhere,” it wrote on Thursday.
“These two women were killed along with their children at the hands of forces led by the Muslim Brotherhood group, one in Sudan and the other in Gaza.
“Both killers blame others for their crimes, and both of their propaganda enjoys coverage from western media.”
Other Emirati accounts have made a similar connection between Hamas and the SAF.
Meera Zayed posted on Thursday: “The Muslim brotherhood led army in Sudan are: the Hamas Of Africa.”
Hassan Sajwani, a popular right-wing Emirati social media figure, wrote: “What’s happening in Sudan from the last 2 years is the result of Muslim Brotherhood – backed Port Sudan Authority’s insistence on continuing war and sacrificing innocent civilians for power.”
Coordinated posts
On Thursday, two Emirati influencers posted extremely similar statements condemning Iran’s reaction to the UAE’s role in Sudan. Both posts attempted to defend the UAE and Israel.
One, from Sana Ebrahimi, read: “After seeing the Islamic Republic propagandists and officials blaming the genocide in Sudan on the UAE and ‘the Zionist regime’, I am now confident that this is yet another plot to blame Israel and destroy UAE’s image because of its stance on Hamas and Islamic terrorism.”
A very similar post, from Emirati account Reem Awad, stated: “After seeing some officials and media figures from the Islamic Republic blame the UAE and the Zionist regime for the crisis in Sudan, it’s totally clear that this is part of a planned campaign to damage the UAE’s image because of its firm position against Hamas and Islamic extremism.”
The use of the exact same screenshots and talking points suggests a coordinated effort.
The UAE established open relations with Israel in September 2020. Since then, the two countries have strengthened economic and political ties.
Earlier this week, it was announced that an Israeli state-owned defence company had set up a subsidiary to operate in the UAE, in the first such move since relations were normalised.
MEE reported earlier this month that the UAE, partly with the help of Israel, has built a network of military and intelligence bases across the Horn of Africa and southern Yemen.
Several posts, from both Israeli and Emirati accounts, made unverified claims about the SAF targeting Christian minorities in Sudan.
One viral post from an Israeli posted the same screengrab of the Sudanese family, claiming that they were Christians in danger from “Islamists”. There is no clear evidence to suggest this is the case.
Meanwhile, Avi Yemeni, a far-right Israeli influencer, wrote on X: “Christians in Sudan and Nigeria are being slaughtered by jihadists — a GENUINE genocide. But because it doesn’t fit the narrative, almost nobody cares.”
The vast majority of people in Sudan are Muslim (over 90 percent) and the war is not being fought along religious lines.
The war erupted in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the SAF, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, spiralled into open conflict.
The violence was triggered by disagreements over plans to integrate the RSF into the regular army, but quickly evolved into a nationwide war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million.
MEE reported in January 2024 that the UAE was supplying the RSF with weapons through a complex network of supply lines and alliances stretching across Libya, Chad, Uganda and breakaway regions of Somalia.
US intelligence agencies reported as recently as October that the UAE has increased its supply of Chinese drones and other weapon systems to the RSF, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Since Sudan’s war began in April 2023, RSF fighters have been accused of widespread massacres and abuses, including a genocide elsewhere in Darfur. The SAF have also been accused of war crimes.
Source: MEE
