Irony of US-UAE defence pact in face of Sudan war claims
US President Joe Biden attends a bilateral meeting with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington DC on September 23, 2024. Reuters
Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America may be on different continents, but the war in Khartoum has brought them closer together.
This week, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan made his first-ever visit to the White House, where he and his host President Joe Biden announced that Abu Dhabi would be Washington’s Major Defence Partner, joining India.
“This unique designation as a Major Defence Partner will allow for unprecedented cooperation through joint training, exercises, and military-to-military collaboration, between the military forces of the United States, the UAE, and India, as well as other common military partners, in furtherance of regional stability,” the White House said.
The two sides are targeting strategic investments globally, a dispatch said, “to ensure reliable access to critical infrastructure including, ports, mines, and logistics hubs through the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company, Abu Dhabi Ports, and DP World.”
Some of these companies have been exploring the Eastern African shores, including Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan.
And one of the projects includes a US-UAE partnership to improve green power generation for digital transformation in Kenya, leveraging geothermal power production for data centres.
But the UAE is also accused of fomenting trouble in the very region. In Sudan specifically, Abu Dhabi has fought back claims of arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the sides in the war that began in April 2023.
The US has had a Defence Cooperation Agreement with Abu Dhabi since 2017, where they worked jointly on defeating violent extremists such as al-Qaeda and ISIS and to secure “regional stability and combatting threats against their common interests including terrorist financing.”
After Wednesday’s elevation to a Major Defence Partner, some critics argued the US had provided the UAE with a shield to avoid accountability in Sudan.
“The designation of the UAE as a Major Defence Partner by Washington while calling for an end to arms supplies to Sudan is not just contradictory—it is deeply damaging to efforts for accountability in Sudan’s ongoing conflict,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at rights watchdog DAWN, told The EastAfrican.
“The UAE has played a well-documented role in fueling violence in Sudan, including through its support for warring factions and its involvement in arms transfers that have worsened the humanitarian crisis.
"This status essentially rewards a regime that has actively contributed to instability in Sudan and other parts of the region, from Yemen to Libya,” Jarrar added, referring to the RSF in Sudan and the other warring factions in Libya and Yemen, both of which have remained unstable over the past decade.
“Instead of enabling such regimes with military partnerships, the US should prioritise accountability and human rights.
"Holding the UAE accountable for its actions in Sudan is the only path forward if we are serious about ending violence and promoting peace in the region.”
Biden and his guest spoke on human rights as the basic standard for their engagement. They also said they share concerns about the atrocities in Sudan, particularly as fighting continues in Darfur.
“They underscored that all parties to the conflict must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, and all individuals and groups that commit war crimes must be held accountable,”a dispatch from the White House said.
But that picture of focusing on humanitarian support has been dented in Sudan lately, for the UAE, which is accused of providing covert support to RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo aka Hemedti.
Although it has often fought back the accusations, a New York Times report last week provided the latest evidence that Abu Dhabi had used an import meant for humanitarian delivery to launch drones to survey the areas of the war, and using the cover of the Red Crescent signs to deliver the advanced military weaponry.
That report came just days after the UAE backed a UN Security Council call to extend an arms embargo on Darfur, one of the most affected areas under this war but which had been torn up by clashes for the last two decades.
“It is vital for this Council to remain seized of the dire situation in Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates welcomes the renewal of the Sudan sanctions regime,” said a statement from the UAE Permanent Mission at the UN, which also refuted allegations of atrocities.
In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Sudanese military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan expressed regret over the external support being provided to the RSF by regional countries seeking political and economic gains.
He did not name specific countries, but Khartoum has in the past repeatedly accused the UAE of supplying weapons to the RSF through Chad, in direct violation of the arms embargo imposed on Sudan’s Darfur region.
In fact, the Biden administration has itself directly accused the UAE and Iran of fomenting the war. At the UNGA on Tuesday, Biden didn’t name the countries but asked that they stop arming warring sides.
“The world needs to stop arming the generals, to speak with one voice and tell them: Stop tearing your country apart. Stop blocking aid to the Sudanese people. End this war now,” Biden said in his address.
“But people need more than the absence of war. They need the chance — the chance to live indignity. They need to be protected from the ravages of climate change, hunger, and disease.”
The US led other countries in a ‘Ministerial Meeting on Advancing Peace in Sudan.’
“Participants were also gravely alarmed by the escalating hostilities in El Fasher which are putting civilians at extreme risk and demanded an immediate halt to the siege.
"Moreover, participants called upon all foreign actors, in line with relevant Security Council resolutions and the commitments made in Paris, to refrain from providing military support to the warring parties and to focus their efforts towards building the conditions for a negotiated resolution of the conflict,” they said in a joint statement.
The meeting was convened by the US, Germany, France and the European Union and was attended by the African Union, Igad, the League of Arab States, the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Norway, Switzerland and Türkiye. Sudan itself didn’t attend.
Sudan’s war has seen various regional interests converge or compete on its soil, largely because of its resources such as gold and other minerals, oil, natural gas, and agricultural and livestock products just as much as its strategic location.
Sudan’s ports, particularly those along the Red Sea, play a crucial role in this competition.
In 2019, the UAE attempted to invest in Port Sudan in collaboration with a Filipino company, but the project failed due to protests by workers and civilians who believed that the deal served foreign interests at Sudan’s expense.
In December 2022, the Sudanese government signed an agreement with a UAE-led consortium, which included Abu Dhabi Ports and Invictus Investment, to develop the Abu Amama port with investments estimated at $6 billion.
However, following the outbreak of war in April 2023 and accusations by the Sudanese authorities of UAE support for the RSF, the agreement’s implementation was suspended.
This highlights that control over Sudanese ports is one of the main drivers behind the UAE’s involvement in the conflict.
In recent years, the UAE has become a major market for African gold, much of which is acquired illegally by armed militias in various countries.
This trade fuels conflicts across the continent, including in Sudan, where the RSF controls gold-rich areas such as Jebel Amer in North Darfur.
For the UAE, supplying weapons top RSF suggests leverage in gold-rich areas the paramilitary group controls, but ports, lie in areas controlled by the Sudanese army.
So far, The EastAfrican has learnt that exports to the UAE have continued unhindered.
Politically, the UAE's support for the RSF also aligns with its broader strategy to eliminate the remnants of Islamists in Sudan who were behind Omar al-Bashir but now back Burhan.
Some observers see this as part of its regional approach to securing its economic and political interests in the region.
