Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces fighters man “technical” vehicles bought from the United Arab Emirates in 2019, part of what observers say is the RSF’s deep connection to the UAE in its conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces. REUTERS
A dramatic legal escalation between the United Arab Emirates and Sudan unfolded Thursday as Abu Dhabi referred Sudan’s army chief of staff and 12 other individuals — along with six companies — to its State Security Court, alleging a coordinated scheme to smuggle military ammunition through UAE territory to the Sudanese Armed Forces.
At the centre of the case is General Yassir al-Atta, Sudan’s army chief of staff, who is being tried in absentia. Al-Atta has previously made inflammatory public statements against the Gulf state, making his indictment a particularly charged moment in the increasingly bitter relationship between the two countries. Also implicated in the prosecution is a procurement committee said to be chaired by Sudan’s army commander-in-chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which prosecutors allege orchestrated the operation.
According to the UAE’s state news agency WAM, authorities intercepted millions of rounds of ammunition at an unspecified UAE airport in 2025 before they could be loaded onto private aircraft and flown to Sudan. Prosecutors allege the shipment was part of a deliberate effort to move arms covertly through Emirati territory. The defendants face charges of illicit trafficking in military materiel, forgery and misuse of official documents, and laundering the proceeds of those crimes. The Sudanese Armed Forces had dismissed an earlier Emirati account of the seizure as a fabrication, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s court referral.
The prosecution comes against the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating relationship between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi. Sudan’s military has repeatedly accused the UAE of arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group it has been fighting in a devastating civil war now entering its third year. The UAE has categorically denied those allegations, insisting its involvement in Sudan is limited to humanitarian assistance.
That war, born out of a violent power struggle between the national army and the RSF, has left tens of thousands dead and forced roughly 14 million people from their homes in what has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Though the army has managed to reclaim much of central Sudan, the RSF retains a firm grip on the Darfur region. Fierce fighting continues in the Kordofan region along key frontlines, while the RSF has also opened a new front in Blue Nile state near the Ethiopian border, broadening a conflict that shows little sign of resolution.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah