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“This is not a drill. It is a red alert,” said the UN rights chief, Volker Türk, on Friday. He was warning that catastrophe was unfolding in the strategically important Sudanese city of El Obeid in north Kordofan. Near-siege conditions are tightening, relentless drone attacks continue and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allies are massing around it.
Two decades ago, after the genocide in Darfur, the world said “never again”. But it is happening again, and few are even paying attention. The alarm was raised repeatedly last year as the starvation siege of El Fasher in north Darfur deepened. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the subsequent massacre, with one witness describing “a scene out of a horror movie”. UN investigators reported “the hallmarks of genocide”, including explicit calls to eliminate non-Arab communities. Civilians who fled were raped and murdered; so were those who stayed. Before El Fasher came a killing spree in Geneina by RSF-allied forces.
After more than three years of war in Sudan, hundreds of thousands have been killed, 15 million have fled their homes and the conflict is spilling into neighbouring states. Both sides have committed war crimes. The relentless ambition of Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the RSF leader, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, brooks no compromise. Yet the war of attrition might exhaust them were outside actors not fuelling the conflict – drawn by gold, gum arabic and potential geopolitical advantage.
Many states are pursuing their interests while Sudanese civilians suffer, but the UAE’s role is particularly critical. While it denies backing the RSF, rights groups and diplomats say it is their key supporter. The US and UK voice concern for Sudan, but have studiously ignored the role of the UAE, which has pledged to invest $1.4tn in the US. An Emirati royal has also put $500m into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency business. A human rights investigator told British MPs last month that the UK had evidence linking Ethiopia and the Emirates to the RSF in 2024 – but that officials said they would not divulge it publicly following “significant” UAE pressure. There is evidence of British military equipment being used by the RSF.
Yet the UAE’s sensitivity to reputational damage suggests that pressure can work. It has invested heavily to establish itself as a celebrity playground, home for influencers and attractive tourist destination – an image dented by the fallout of the war on Iran. In the US, the co-chairs of Congress’s bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission have written to corporations including the National Basketball Association and Walt Disney, urging them to cut ties with the UAE over Sudan.
Two decades ago the celebrity-studded Save Darfur campaign raised global awareness of the genocide. The movement was very much a product of its time. Yet stars now have more direct access to audiences and unwelcome attention might just make the UAE wonder whether supporting the RSF is worth the damage to its glossy presentation. There is precedent: two years ago, the US rapper Macklemore cancelled a concert in Dubai over the war. But that it is necessary to contemplate such a pressure campaign is an indictment of governments’ cowardice at a time when, as Mr Türk said, their phones should be “running hot” to prevent atrocities.
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