Despite the United Arab Emirates spending millions of dollars annually to polish its image globally and project itself as a safe destination for travel, investment, and depositing savings in its banks, presenting itself as a so called “promised land”, and despite being the first Arab state to announce the creation of a Ministry of Tolerance, it is at the same time the first Arab state against which a case has been brought over support for genocide.
Abu Dhabi, which has long called for consolidating internal unity among its seven united emirates, has pursued a foreign policy that stands in stark contrast. It has worked to stir divisions in Arab countries experiencing conflict, in an attempt to delineate a sphere of influence by backing specific militias, according to a report published recently by The Economist magazine.
UAE Support for Rogue Actors in the Arab World
The magazine’s report highlighted Abu Dhabi’s actions as the wealthiest of the emirates forming the state, detailing how it supported armed movements and groups starting in Libya through its alliance with warlord Khalifa Haftar, then backing southern Yemeni separatists whom it viewed as suitable allies, moving on to reopening its embassy in Damascus in 2018 and pressuring other countries to normalise relations with Bashar al Assad’s regime, and finally Sudan. There, it became entangled in a war of extermination carried out by the Rapid Support Forces using advanced weapons paid for by the UAE, according to United Nations documentation linking British arms exports to the UAE with the arrival of advanced military equipment on Sudanese battlefields. This constituted a violation of the international embargo and a direct fueling of a bloody conflict ongoing for more than three years, as revealed by a lengthy investigation by the British newspaper The Guardian.
A Giant Billboard in Central London Exposes the UAE’s Role
In recent days, a massive billboard appeared in central London, raising widespread questions. The billboard, which is broadcast approximately every 80 seconds around the clock, places the UAE’s role in the ongoing bloody war in Sudan, since April 2023, under scrutiny.
The billboard displays an AI generated image of a young woman in a swimming pool taking a selfie against the skyline of Dubai’s skyscrapers. Alongside this scene, her phone screen shows the true outcome of the selfie, where the background shifts from Dubai’s towering views to destruction and billowing smoke resulting from bombardment in cities such as El Fasher. The advertisement carries the message: “Your selfie will not look beautiful once you know what they are doing in Sudan”. The same billboard is also displayed on both sides of a mobile vehicle circulating in central London.
The advertisement also includes a QR code enabling viewers to access articles about the UAE’s role in Sudan, which is suffering from the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, including journalistic reports published by outlets such as The Guardian and The New York Times, as well as international research centres.
According to Radio Monte Carlo International, the advertisement is part of a campaign launched by the organisation Avaaz, which focuses on global mobilisation for human rights and democracy, in cooperation with the group London for Sudan. The campaign aims to draw public attention to the role played by the UAE in Sudan, where reports indicate its support for the Rapid Support Forces, accused of committing widespread crimes and violations.
The campaign also seeks to highlight the contradiction between the UAE’s status as a luxury tourism destination and its role in the war in Sudan. The UAE Department of Economy and Tourism indicates that more than 1.04 million visitors from the United Kingdom visited Dubai during the first nine months of 2025.
A spokesperson for Avaaz told Middle East Eye: “If the United Arab Emirates wants to preserve Dubai’s reputation as a luxury tourist destination, it must end any support for militias involved in genocide and atrocities in Sudan. The growing evidence of its role in bloodshed will not disappear from consumers’ minds forever”.
Diplomats from around the world told Middle East Eye that the UAE’s involvement in the Sudan war is an open secret, but Abu Dhabi’s adept political lobbying, and in the words of US President Donald Trump, its “unlimited money”, have helped shield it from direct reprimand or material consequences.
The UAE Admits Error and Condemns Campaigns Against It
Amid widespread anger over the UAE’s role in massacres in Sudan, Anwar Gargash, advisor to the UAE president, turned to the X platform to denounce what he described as “fierce” campaigns targeting his country. He said: “I have followed the fierce campaigns against my country, some from expected sources and others from parties I did not expect. Campaigns that largely ignored the internal circumstances of the cases they address, to justify their own shortcomings and flee forward, remaining overall devoid of results”.
It appears that Gargash’s repeated media appearances failed to dispel the accusations against the UAE, nor did his public admission of errors in his country’s Sudan policy mitigate the damage to its international reputation due to its support for the Rapid Support Forces. According to The Guardian, this marked the first time the UAE acknowledged wrongdoing. In a speech delivered in Bahrain, Gargash said that the UAE and other countries “made a mistake when they failed to impose sanctions on the perpetrators of the 2021 coup” that overthrew Sudan’s transitional civilian government, led by Abdel Fattah al Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. He said: “We all made a mistake when we allowed the two generals now fighting to bring down the civilian government”.
He added: “Looking back, it was a fundamental mistake. We should have stood firmly and called what happened a coup, but we did not”.
What Are They Doing in Sudan
While the UAE denies any involvement in the ongoing bloody conflict in Sudan, several international reports and open source intelligence investigations, based on available data, have presented evidence of state support for the Rapid Support Forces. A United Nations panel of experts investigated in April of this year how Bulgarian mortar shells shipped to the UAE reached Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces.
It emerged that these munitions, seized in November in North Darfur state, carried the same serial numbers as those exported by Bulgaria to the UAE in 2019, as confirmed by UN investigators. This was documented through photos and videos published by supporters of the Sudanese government and also verified by Amnesty International.
The UAE’s support for the Rapid Support Forces stems from its desire to extract raw materials, particularly agricultural produce and precious minerals, from Sudan’s fertile lands.
The current Sudanese government has rejected numerous agreements with Abu Dhabi due to their exploitative and unfair clauses, which generate massive profits for the Emirati government while offering minimal protection for local workers and landowners. As a result, the Rapid Support Forces represent an opportunity for the UAE to entrench its influence and expand its control in the region, according to a report by the Human Rights Research Centre.
Strategically, areas under the control of the Sudanese armed forces provide access advantages to the Red Sea, a vital transport hub through which 12 percent of global maritime trade passes, in addition to the historical demographic and administrative centre of Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, and Kassala state, which is rich in livestock resources.
According to estimates by Sudanese researcher Jihad Mishamoun, the Sudanese armed forces controlled 60 percent of the country until November 2025, before the Rapid Support Forces expanded their control over Darfur, the vast western region that had been a hub for gold mining and smuggling routes, and the regional capital El Fasher, an economic centre linking roads to Libya to the north, the Nile River to the east, and Chad to the west.
Researcher Pravin Onditi noted that the fall of El Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces in late October eliminated the last strongholds of the Sudanese armed forces in Darfur, from which they could have asserted authority in western Sudan. Outside Darfur, the Rapid Support Forces control most of the country’s oil fields and many gold fields in central and southwestern Sudan.
Proxy Massacres and Support Through Mercenaries
Human Rights Watch confirms that since the beginning of the current conflict in Sudan, UN experts, as well as media and international organisations, have reported that the Rapid Support Forces receive military support from the UAE despite their appalling human rights record.
Human Rights Watch and France 24 documented the use by the Rapid Support Forces of weapons that were previously in the possession of the Emirati army. International and Colombian media also reported that a UAE-based company recruited and deployed former Colombian soldiers in Darfur to train Rapid Support Forces fighters and fight alongside them.
Videos on social media platforms, verified and geolocated by Human Rights Watch, show foreign fighters speaking Spanish participating in intense armed clashes in El Fasher.
Who Pays the Price in Sudan
According to the Operational Data Portal of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the war has caused the forced displacement of more than 12 million people. Displacement in this context means loss of access to food, water, and basic healthcare, alongside deteriorating security. Sudan’s population can no longer enjoy a normal or dignified life, instead living in a state of constant flight, in addition to the killing of around 150,000 people.
Those who remain in Sudan face devastation and comprehensive catastrophe. More than 26 million Sudanese suffer from acute hunger, and Sudan may soon become the worst and most widespread hunger crisis in the world in modern memory. Armed groups continue to launch attacks and cut off humanitarian aid to the Abu Shouk and Zamzam camps for refugees and internally displaced persons, which were once considered safe havens for fleeing civilians and are currently home to more than one million people.
