Britain has been urged to suspend arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after UK military equipment was found in the hands of the Sudanese militia alleged to be carrying out genocide in Darfur.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rebel army backed by the Gulf nation, has massacred at least 2,000 civilians in the city of El Fasher, with pools of blood and bodies visible in satellite imagery.
British small-arms targeting systems and engines for military vehicles have been sent to the RSF by the UAE, according to reports by Sudan’s army that were recently handed to the United Nations Security Council.
Babikir Elamin, Sudan’s ambassador to the UK, told The Telegraph that UAE support was “the single most important element in prolonging and enabling this genocide”.
He urged the international community to apply pressure on the UAE to end its arms supplies to the RSF, which grew out of the Janjaweed militia that carried out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab citizens in Darfur 20 years ago.
Citing the report handed to the UN, he said Britain must “investigate” the reports that its military products were being used by the RSF in its fresh campaign of “heinous atrocities”.
In Parliament on Tuesday, Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, was asked whether Britain would suspend arms sales to the UAE “until it is proven that the UAE is not arming the RSF”.
The paramilitary fighters on the streets of El Fasher – Rapid Support Forces/AFP via Getty Images
Ms Cooper did not directly answer the question, instead saying Britain had “extremely strong controls on arms exports” and “will continue to take that immensely seriously”.
Monica Harding MP, Liberal Democrat spokesman for international development, said: “The civil war in Sudan is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world. Millions are on the brink of starvation and experiencing unimaginable suffering.
“The possibility that British military equipment is contributing to the horrors occurring there, and aiding the carnage caused by the RSF, is horrific. The UK must cease all arms sales to the UAE immediately until we can confirm, without a doubt, that no British weapons are going via the UAE to the RSF.”
Videos from El Fasher showed point-blank executions of civilians, including men told to run away before being shot in the back.
One clip from inside the Saudi Maternity Hospital showed RSF fighters shooting a wounded man surrounded by blood-stained corpses. The World Health Organisation cited reports that as many as 460 patients and staff were murdered on the premises.
The city of El Fasher fell following an 18-month siege – Rapid Support Forces/AFP via Getty Images
The RSF besieged El Fasher for 18 months before its fighters stormed the city at the weekend, leading to accusations that the international community had failed to prevent “another Srebrenica”.
Between 2019 and the present day, Britain has exported more than £1bn worth of arms to the UAE on standard export licences, according to government data.
The UAE has supplied sophisticated Chinese drones, heavy artillery, small arms, mortars and armoured personnel carriers to the RSF, according to US intelligence reports.
The Gulf nation, which denies providing any weaponry to the Sudanese rebels, is attempting to establish a foothold in a country with access to valuable Red Sea coastline, farming lands and reserves of gold, The Telegraph was told.
Sudan’s government has provided the UN Security Council with two dossiers of material, dated June 2024 and March this year, which include imagery of British military equipment found in evacuated rebel strongholds.
Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, says Britain has ‘strong controls on arms exports’ – Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images
The material, first reported by The Guardian, includes small-arms targeting devices manufactured by Militec, a defence manufacturer based in South Wales. It also shows pictures of British-made engines used in the UAE’s Nimr Ajban armoured personnel carriers, reportedly recovered from RSF positions.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The UK has one of the most robust and transparent export control regimes in the world. All export licences are assessed for the risk of diversion to an undesirable end user. We expect all countries to comply with their obligations under existing sanctions regimes.”
Anneliese Dodds, the Labour MP and former chairman of the party, said “any evidence that the [arms control regime] hasn’t been held to has to be investigated thoroughly”.
In the past, the government has refused export licences to the UAE. Britain is legally bound not to sell licensed military equipment where there is a clear risk of it being diverted to bad actors.
But the government has issued 132 standard export licences to the UAE since the start of Sudan’s civil war in 2023, worth a total of £249m. The material includes £66m of general military electronic equipment, and £29.5m in radar and targeting equipment.
In September last year, it also issued an open licence for the kind of targeting-training goods previously supplied by Militec. The company was approached for comment.
“The government has been pretty irresponsible in failing to take a more careful look at what it’s been exporting to the UAE, given the UAE’s known record of diversion,” said Sam Perlo-Freeman, a research co-ordinator at the Campaign Against Arms Trade.
“It’s very hard to say what might have been used in support of UAE operation in Sudan and their support for the RSF, but… UK has been very, very free in issuing export licences to the UAE, in spite of the UAE role in the genocide.”
Once issued, the exports are not monitored by the government to assess the risk of diversion, added Mr Perlo-Freeman.
Mike Lewis, a former member of the UN panel of experts on Sudan, said: “Ministers can’t simply rely on the force of the adjective ‘robust’ [export controls] when it is clear that UK arms are ending up somewhere they shouldn’t be.”
In December last year, Sir Keir Starmer visited the UAE as part of the Government’s efforts to drum up investment and boost the economy. Labour ministers face accusations that they are unwilling to specifically call out the UAE’s role in the conflict that has caused the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophe.
‘Risk of becoming refugees’
In response to the parliamentary question about UK arms supplies to the UAE, Ms Cooper called on “all countries with influence in the region to push the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces to ensure the protection of civilians”.
On Tuesday, the US Senate committee on foreign relations – the body charged with leading policy on international relations – called for the RSF to be designated a terrorist organisation. Democrats have submitted a bill that would suspend arms sales to the UAE until it stops supporting the RSF.
Mr Elamin, the Sudanese ambassador, said Britain had a national interest in blocking the flow of arms.
The “genocide” will push “people to flee”, he said, and many would end up in Britain.
“What the RSF is doing is depopulating Darfur, so they can bring in new settlers from what they call Arab communities,” he added. “That means the natives of Darfur, who run into the millions, will be displaced, either internally or becoming refugees.”
Asked whether he thought Britain’s efforts to secure UAE investment were hampering its diplomatic response to the crisis in Darfur, Mr Elamin replied: “I hope it is not the case.”
