THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Sudan filed a case at the top United Nations court accusing the United Arab Emirates of breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the rebel paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s deadly war, the court announced Thursday. The UAE called the filing a publicity stunt and said it would seek to have the case dismissed.
The International Court of Justice said Sudan’s case, filed Wednesday, concerns acts allegedly perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias including “genocide, murder, theft of property, rape, forcible displacement, trespassing, vandalism of public properties, and violation of human rights” targeting the Masalit people.
The United Arab Emirates issued a statement after the filing asserting the case was a “nothing more than a cynical publicity stunt.”
The filing is “aimed at diverting attention from the established complicity of the Sudanese Armed Forces in the widespread atrocities that continue to devastate Sudan and its people,” the UAE statement said, referring to the government-backed forces fighting in the war.
Both the RSF and the Sudanese military have been accused of abuses in the war.
The UAE statement said the allegations in Sudan’s case “lack any legal or factual basis, representing yet another attempt to distract from this calamitous war. Out of respect for the International Court of Justice, as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, the UAE will seek the immediate dismissal of this baseless application.”
Sudan alleges that the UAE was “complicit in the genocide on the Masalit through its direction of and provision of extensive financial, political, and military support for the rebel RSF militia,” the court said.
Sudan also asked the court to impose urgent interim orders known as provisional measures on the UAE, including doing all it can to prevent the killing and other crimes targeting the Masalit.
Both Sudan and the UAE are signatories to the 1948 genocide convention.
Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary rebels broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions.
The war has killed more than 24,000 people and driven over 14 million people — about 30% of the population — from their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have escaped to neighboring countries.
The case at the world court was announced less than two weeks after the Rapid Support Forces and its allies signed a charter that paved the way for the establishment of a parallel government, following recent advances by Sudan’s army against the rival groups.
The group Conflict Observatory, which is funded by the U.S. State Department and has been monitoring the war in Sudan, has identified aircraft it says carried UAE arms transfers to the RSF. Those flights went through Aéroport International Maréchal Idriss Deby in Amdjarass, Chad — flights the UAE has claimed have been for supporting a local hospital.
In January, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, had been targeted for sanctions along with seven RSF-owned companies in the United Arab Emirates, including one handling gold likely smuggled out of Sudan. That came as the U.S. declared the RSF are committing genocide.
The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and a U.S. ally, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, something it has strenuously denied despite evidence to the contrary.
The UAE said it has been calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war.
“The Sudanese Armed Forces’ application to the ICJ does not absolve it from its legal and moral responsibility for its criminal acts and the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country,” the UAE said.
Two decades ago, the Sudanese region of Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
Rulings by the International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, take years to reach and are legally binding.
____
Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
Discussion about this post