Agencies – Darfur 24
Sudan informed the International Court of Justice( ICJ)that the UAE was the “driving force” behind what it called “genocide” in Darfur through its alleged support for the Rapid Support Forces(RSF). The UAE responded that the case “is completely devoid of any legal or factual basis.”
At the start of the court hearings, Sudan’s acting Minister of Justice, Moawia Osman, said that the UAE was violating the Genocide Convention by supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Darfur.
He added, “The support provided by the United Arab Emirates(UAE), which continues today to the RSF and its allied militias, remains the main driver of the genocide, manifested in killings, rapes, forced displacement, and looting.”
Reem Keteit, Deputy Assistant Minister for Political Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the case as a “blatant exploitation of a respected international institution,” stressing that it “is completely devoid of any legal or factual basis.”
“What Sudan needs today is not political charades, but an immediate ceasefire and a serious commitment by both parties to negotiate a peaceful solution,” Keteit said in a statement.
Sudan’s complaint to the ICJ relates to extensive ethnically motivated attacks by the Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias on the non-Arab Masalit tribe in West Darfur in 2023, documented in detail by Reuters.
Sudan accuses the UAE of violating its obligations under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention by “attempting to commit, complicit in, inciting, participating in, or failing to prevent or punish genocide.”
The court heard the arguments submitted by Sudan, which “included a number of statements proving the UAE’s involvement in Sudan’s war by supplying the rebel Rapid Support Forces with weapons and military equipment, enabling them to commit genocide in West Darfur, war crimes, and numerous other serious violations,” according to the Sudanese News Agency. The UAE has repeatedly rejected the case against it, describing it as a “political game.”