DAWN calls for UN arms embargo on UAE over Sudan role

US rights organisation Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has called for a UN arms embargo on the UAE, accusing the Gulf state of enabling abuses by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In a statement, the organisation called on the UN General Assembly and individual member states to take action, saying that the UAE has played a central role in Sudan’s more than three-year conflict, as well as in other human rights violations across the region. DAWN further said that the UAE has provided extensive support to the RSF through supply routes, training camps, re-exported foreign weapons and business networks, urging the UN General Assembly to convene an emergency session. Speaking to The New Arab on Friday, DAWN's Advocacy Director Raed Jarrar argued that Abu Dhabi's involvement in violations across the MENA region has "historically went unnoticed", adding that the Emirates has reportedly played a central role in "supporting abusive counter-revolutionary forces after the Arab Spring". "Their interventions are not new, but their more recent intervention in Sudan has been one of the most outrageous ones, and especially taken into consideration that even countries that are abusers of human rights, such as the United States government, even the US has declared the conflict in Sudan to have risen to the level of genocide because of the killings that were committed by the RSF," he continued. DAWN said it had also written to US, French, British, Chinese and Italian authorities, calling for an arms embargo and the suspension of security cooperation with the UAE. The organisation specifically highlighted the role of the United States, which it said supplies 54 percent of the UAE’s arms. It further reported that France is the UAEs second-largest supplier at 13 percent, while the United Kingdom and China, whose components and re-exported munitions have reportedly been found in the hands of the RSF in Sudan. The group said it had also written to Italy, which previously revoked missile and bomb export licences to the UAE in 2021 under its own arms export laws, urging Rome to reinstate and expand those measures. "Those exports are not only a violation of international resolutions and agreements regarding not sending weapons to support the genocide- they're also in violation of domestic US, Italian, British, French and Chinese law that prohibits re-exporting weapons to areas of genocide, including ourselves," DAWN's Jarrar said. He continued: "The secondary level of accountability here, because those states are now on notice by [DAWN] and many other organizations and countries, is telling them you are responsible for committing crimes, and if you didn't know about that from before, now you know. "Now, if they continue to provide weapons to the United Arab Emirates, knowing that their weapons are ending in the wrong hands and contributing to genocide, then those countries could be involved in serious violations of international law, including aiding and abetting genocide." DAWN also cited the UAE’s previous involvement in Yemen, where Emirati-backed forces are accused of operating secret detention facilities and tortured detainees over the past decade. The organisation further accused Abu Dhabi of violating the UN arms embargo on Libya by providing support to forces loyal to Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar, whose forces have been accused by rights groups of committing war crimes during Libya’s civil war. The group also highlighted the UAE’s defence and diplomatic ties with Israel, accusing Abu Dhabi of deepening relations amid Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. "The UAE and other abusive governments in the region have long denied very clear evidence about their violations, and I feel like the UAE is using one of the most basic pages from Israel's playbook when it comes to genocide denial by questioning the very basic facts about their engagement there," Jarrar told The New Arab. "The fact-finding missions, the weapons found in Sudan, the damning evidence of flight paths and movement of weapons over the past years is overwhelming for the UAE to come now and try to deny it." DAWN has since called on the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution declaring the UAE’s conduct a violation of the UN Charter, the Arms Trade Treaty and the Darfur arms embargo. Jarrar added: "What's going on in Sudan is a man-made disaster, and the best way to deal with the displacement is to end the genocide, end the RSF atrocities, end the UAE support to those atrocities and bring those people back to their homes." Abu Dhabi has previously rejected allegations that it provides military or financial support to the RSF, while the paramilitary group has also denied receiving assistance from the UAE. The latest allegations follow warnings from the UN fact-finding mission that violations of international humanitarian law and attacks on critical infrastructure in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, resembled the assault on El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in a February report that the RSF had carried out a coordinated campaign of destruction against non-Arab communities in and around El Fasher, with the alleged attacks displaying characteristics of genocide. Sudan’s war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) began on 15 April 2023. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 13 million and pushed more than 19.5 million towards famine.