RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo 'Hemeti' (right) meet Emirati leader Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (left) at the Presidential Airport in Abu Dhabi on 15 May 2022 (AFP/Rashed Al-Mansooori)
Coalition of NGOs accuses foreign officials, primarily from the UAE, of aiding and abetting war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Darfur.
Originally published in Middle East Eye.
A coalition of rights groups has requested that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate the role of high-level officials from the United Arab Emirates and Sudan’s neighbouring countries in allegedly aiding and abetting atrocity crimes in Darfur.
The submission was filed on Monday by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) and a broad coalition of legal, investigative and civil society organisations.
It highlights foreign support for both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), alleging that foreign actors enabled atrocities by the two sides of the conflict by supplying the perpetrators with arms, mercenaries, equipment, logistical support and financing.
It urged prosecutors to investigate the criminal responsibility of foreign actors under Articles 25(3)(c) and 25(3)(d) of the Rome Statute, provisions covering those who aid, abet or knowingly contribute to crimes committed by a group acting with a common purpose.
The submission names the UAE and other regional supporters of the RSF, including officials and intermediaries from Libya, Ethiopia, Chad, Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda. The coalition has not disclosed the identities of the officials named in the filing.
It also refers more broadly to the role of Iran, Turkey and Egypt as linked to alleged crimes committed by the Sudanese army.
Despite the longstanding UN arms embargo on Darfur, the submission notes that the flow of weapons, drones and mercenaries has continued to pour into the region and target civilians as the conflict enters its fourth year.
Atrocities 'without consequence'
The filing takes the form of an Article 15 communication, a mechanism under the Rome Statute that allows organisations to submit information to the prosecutor in the hope of prompting an investigation.
The ICC already has jurisdiction over Darfur through a 2005 UN Security Council referral, which empowers it to prosecute individuals of any nationality for crimes committed there.
As MEE has previously reported, legal scholars believe that basis could, in theory, extend to Emirati nationals accused of aiding RSF crimes, though gathering evidence and securing cooperation from a state that has not ratified the court's founding treaty would present significant obstacles.
Irwin Cotler, founder and international chair of the Wallenberg Centre and former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, said accountability must extend beyond the battlefield.
"The suffering of the Sudanese people will not end so long as the perpetrators of atrocity crimes - and the networks of impunity that enable and sustain them - continue to act without consequence,” he said.
The RWCHR-led submission reflects a broadening of efforts to hold foreign enablers legally accountable through the ICC.
Earlier this month, MEE reported that a separate group of Sudanese survivors had filed their own Article 15 communication targeting senior Emirati officials and business figures, including Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a vice president of the UAE.
The new Wallenberg Centre communication draws on evidence from confidential sources and investigative findings to make its case.
It includes an annex mapping RSF supply lines originating from UAE airports in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah, with suspected cargo arms shipments routed through transit hubs in Chad, Libya and Ethiopia - with the timeline of heightened arms transfers spanning from April 2023 to the present.
Growing evidence of UAE’s role
The UAE has repeatedly denied supplying the RSF with weapons or other support. However, the Gulf state’s support for the paramilitary is widely documented.
Since mid-2023, several investigations have concluded that weapons and materiel reached the RSF via an airbridge through Amdjarass in Chad, with the UAE repeatedly named as a suspected supplier.
Middle East Eye reported in January 2024 that the UAE was supplying the RSF with weapons through a complex network of supply lines and alliances stretching across Libya, Chad, Uganda and breakaway regions of Somalia. A 2024 New York Times investigation also found the UAE had funnelled weapons to the RSF under the guise of humanitarian aid.
In April, MEE revealed that the RSF was being covertly supported from an Ethiopian army base at Asosa, in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, with similar vehicles documented at the port of Berbera in Somaliland, where the UAE maintains a military presence.
Additionally, Human Rights Watch reported last month that Colombian mercenaries hired through a UAE-based company had transited Emirati military bases before deploying to Sudan.
The ICC's deputy prosecutor confirmed earlier this year that her office is already investigating atrocities committed in Darfur since April 2023, but the office has yet to investigate foreign complicity.
NGOs that filed the submission on Monday are hopeful the office of the prosecutor is open to investigating the individuals and officials fueling and sustaining the atrocities from abroad.
In its most recent Darfur report to the UN Security Council in January, the office of the prosecutor described the RSF's deadly 500-day siege of El Fasher as “entirely manmade”, referring to the foreign role in the conflict.
“This conflict has been perpetuated by regional and international actors whose material and financial assistance only guarantees that this catastrophe in Darfur worsens and that war crimes and crimes against humanity will needlessly continue,” the report said.
Despite active investigations since 2023, no ICC arrest warrants have yet been sought for Sudanese nationals in connection with the current conflict.
The office is currently prioritising the investigation of gender-based crimes, and crimes against and affecting children, a spokesperson told MEE.
A United Nations report last week said the RSF is responsible for the majority of sexual crimes committed by warring parties in Sudan over the past three years.
Sondos Asem is a journalist and News Editor at Middle East Eye in London, where she covers international law and diplomacy. She is the producer and host of the Expert Witness podcast, a series featuring in-depth interviews with leading experts, diplomats and policymakers shaping the field. She holds an MSc in International Human Rights Law (2024) and a Master of Public Policy (2015) from the University of Oxford and has over 20 years of experience in journalism, publishing, and translation.
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