The United Arab Emirates on Friday rejected claims made by Amnesty International accusing it of supplying Chinese-manufactured weapons to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are currently engaged in a brutal conflict with the country’s regular army.
“The UAE categorically denies providing weapons to any party involved in the ongoing conflict in Sudan,” said Salem Aljaberi, the UAE’s Assistant Minister for Security and Military Affairs.
“These accusations are entirely unfounded and unsupported by credible evidence,” he added in a statement shared on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ official X (formerly Twitter) account.
On Thursday, Amnesty International reported that it had identified Chinese-made GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers in video footage of RSF attacks on Khartoum and the Darfur region. The London-based human rights group claimed the UAE was the only known importer of the howitzers, citing data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and a 2019 arms deal.
Aljaberi countered that the howitzer in question is widely available on the international market and is manufactured outside of the UAE. “The claim that only one country has procured or transferred this system is inaccurate,” he said, describing Amnesty’s report as “misleading”.
Amnesty’s report emerged as RSF forces intensified their long-range drone strikes on cities controlled by the Sudanese army.
The UAE has repeatedly denied providing weapons to the RSF, despite previous allegations from United Nations experts, US lawmakers, and international watchdogs.
Tensions escalated further on Tuesday when the Sudanese army-aligned administration severed diplomatic ties with the UAE, accusing it of arming the RSF with advanced weaponry used in attacks on Port Sudan.
The UAE dismissed the claim, stating that the Sudanese administration in question “does not represent the legitimate government of Sudan”.
