Evidence of Abu Dhabi’s involvement in the war... Emirati passports in the wreckage of a Rapid Support military vehicle in Sudan

The British newspaper The Guardian revealed new evidence proving the UAE’s involvement in the ongoing civil war in Sudan, which began in mid-April 2023 between the army forces, on the one hand, and the Rapid Support Forces, on the other hand.

It was reported that passports recovered from the battlefields in Sudan indicate that the UAE is secretly deploying forces on the ground in the civil war that broke out in the country, according to leaked documents. However, Abu Dhabi denies this.

A 41-page document, sent to the UN Security Council and seen by the Guardian, contains photographs of Emirati passports allegedly found in Sudan and linked to soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary force led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as My praise.

The papers include pictures of pages from four passports that appear to belong to Emirati citizens, two of whom were born in Dubai, one in the city of Al Ain, and one in Ajman, the fifth largest city in the Emirates. Everyone's age ranges between 29 and 49 years.

A source familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the passports were recovered from the wreckage of a car found in Omdurman last February. He added: "The assessment is that they belong to Emirati intelligence officers."

It was reported that two passports of two Yemeni citizens were found in the same location, one of whom was 38 years old and born in Dubai, and the other was 31 years old from Al Dhalea, southwest of Yemen.

According to the newspaper, the Rapid Support Forces had previously sent thousands of its fighters to Yemen to fight against the Houthis, and the apparent recovery of Yemeni passports in Sudan indicates that this assistance may have been mutual.

The document, sent last June to the UN Security Council, also indicates that the UAE has provided the Rapid Support Forces with modified drones to drop controversial thermobaric bombs, which are more destructive than conventional explosives of similar size, and there have been calls to ban them.

According to the newspaper, the passports were allegedly recovered from Omdurman, a city located on the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum, in an area previously controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, but recently recovered by the Sudanese army.

Analysts described this discovery to the newspaper as “conclusive evidence” that challenges the UAE’s denials and raises questions about what the United States and the United Kingdom know about the level of the Gulf state’s involvement in Sudan and whether the West has done enough to rein in support for the militia accused of “genocide.”

The newspaper explained that the UAE had previously denied all accusations of supplying weapons to the Rapid Support Forces, which are imposing a siege on the city of El Fasher as part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

However, the newspaper believes that talk of the UAE deploying individuals to help in the fighting in Sudan would amount to an escalation, further fueling the geopolitical complexities of the 15-month-old civil war between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army.

Former Sudanese advisor to the US government, Cameron Hudson, said, "The West will be obligated to take action. This will force Washington to admit what it knows about this matter, and will force it to respond."

Some experts believe, according to the newspaper, that without the alleged participation of the UAE, the conflict that is causing the worst ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world would have already ended.

However, the UAE denied the allegations, saying that the four Emirati individuals whose photographs appeared in the passports had in fact traveled to Sudan “well before the conflict” on a humanitarian trip that took place 11 months before the outbreak of war in April 2023.

A statement by the UAE Ambassador to the United Nations said that five of the six passports belonged to a May 2022 delegation from an Emirati-based humanitarian organization called the International Charitable Organization that visited Sudan, according to what the newspaper reported.

The statement added: “No photographs of the other parts of the six passports were provided to substantiate the allegations that these passports were seized from an armored vehicle in a road accident... and they are in the possession of the Sudanese Armed Forces.”

The UAE has repeatedly refuted allegations that it sent military support to any of the warring parties in Sudan. Last July, the UAE mission to the United Nations said that allegations suggesting otherwise were “lies, misleading information and propaganda spread by some Sudanese representatives.”

However, UN sanctions monitors described allegations that the UAE provided military support to the RSF as “credible.”

Source: The Guardian