International court urged to recognise UAE complicity in genocide
FILE PHOTO: Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at an IDP Camp within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) controlled area in Boram County, Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, Sudan June 22, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo
Sudan is accusing the UAE of genocide, in a request lodged at the International court of Appeal, the UN’s highest jurisdiction, in which Khartoum demands that emergency measures be taken.
According to RFI on March 7th, Khartoum asked the court to issue an order to stop the UAE from financing the militias that oppose the regime, including General’s Hemdeti’s RSF mlitia.
According to the regime’s request, the RSF is commiting a genocide against the Sudanese Massalit ethnic group since war resumed in 2023.
The UAE are complicit, Sudan argues in the submission, because of their political, economic and military support to the Rapid Support Forces, that includes arming, recruiting and training militiamen.
The UAE dismissed the allegations, calling Sudan’s request a “cynical publicity stunt”, adding that it will seek immediate dismissal.
Since the beginning of the conflict in 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF, both parties have been accused of committing atrocities.
This includes accustions against the RSF of committing genocide in Darfur against non-arabic ethnic groups, as communicated to the International Criminal Court.
The Sudanes submission adds that “the United Arab Emirates must make full reparation for the injury caused (by) its internationally wrongful acts, including paying reimbursement to the victims of the war.”
“The allegations presented by the SAF representative at the ICJ lack any legal or factual basis, representing yet another attempt to distract from this calamitous war”, replied an unnamed UAE official.
The UN experts monitoring the arms embargo on Darfur have previously shone a light on the UAE’s support for the RSF, an accusation many journalists have called an open secret.
While the ICJ can only issue a non-binding advisory opinion, that decision could serve the current Sudanese government’s credibility in the face of the recent formation of an competing RSF-led government.
The two-year was has been causing at least 10 thousand deaths per months according to the WHO, with 1.5 million displaced within the country reports the UN.
RFI, Maghrebi, the Guardian, WHO
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