Amnesty International: UAE Fuels War in Sudan
Amnesty International accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on Tuesday of committing war crimes against civilians in Sudan, particularly in El Fasher.
The organization asserted that the UAE’s support for the RSF militia is “fueling the ongoing violence” in the war that has raged for over two years.
“The world must not turn a blind eye as reports of the RSF’s attack on El Fasher mount,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, noting that survivors’ testimonies describe “unimaginable horrors.”
She added that “this ongoing and widespread violence against civilians constitutes war crimes and may constitute other crimes under international law,” accusing the UAE of “facilitating” these acts.
She noted that “the UAE’s continued support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is fueling the ongoing cycle of violence against civilians in Sudan,” calling on the international community to pressure Abu Dhabi to cease its support for the RSF militia.
The organization relayed testimonies from 28 survivors of the violence in El Fasher, whom it interviewed in displacement camps in Chad on the western border with Sudan, and in the Sudanese towns of Tawila and Tina.
Ibtisam, who is using a pseudonym for her safety, reported that she and her five children fled the Abu Shouk neighborhood in El Fasher the day after the RSF took control. In the Golo area, west of El Fasher, they were stopped by three RSF fighters.
Ibtisam recounted, “One of them forced me to go with him, tore my clothes, and raped me. When they let us go, I saw my 14-year-old daughter with her clothes torn and stained with blood, and dirt visible in the back of her hair.”
She added that her daughter remained silent for hours before telling her, “They raped me too. But don’t tell anyone.” After that, she became very ill, and her health deteriorated by the time we arrived at the clinic. She died there.
On the same day, Khalil was also trying to escape El Fasher, but Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters stopped him and 20 others as soon as they crossed the earthen berm the RSF had erected around the city to besiege it since mid-2024.
“They ordered us to lie on the ground… and opened fire on us… They killed 17 of the 20 I was trying to escape with,” said Khalil, who also changed his name.
Khalil survived only because he pretended to be dead. “The RSF fighters were killing people like flies. It was a massacre. None of the dead I saw were armed.”
Amnesty International called on influential international and regional actors to “take the necessary measures to halt the sale or supply of arms and related materiel to all parties to the conflict” and to exert urgent diplomatic pressure on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leadership to stop its attacks on civilians, including sexual violence against women and girls.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 100,000 civilians have fled El Fasher to neighboring towns since the end of last month, in addition to some 40,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) from North Kordofan.
Since the fall of El Fasher, reports of mass killings, ethnic violence, abductions, and sexual assaults have been emerging, while human rights organizations have indicated that ethnically motivated killings have occurred in areas controlled by the RSF militia.