UK enrages Sudanese army government by inviting UAE to London conference

The UK plans to convene a conference on the war in Sudan in London in April and has invited its ally, the United Arab Emirates, to attend. However, according to documents obtained by Middle East Eye on Friday, the Sudanese military-backed government was not invited. The conference is scheduled to take place in London on April 15th.

Neither the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) nor its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), were invited to the conference. The UAE's attendance has sparked strong resentment from Sudanese officials aligned with the military, given that the UAE has provided weapons and other supplies to the RSF during the year-long conflict in Sudan. This war, which began in April 2023, has resulted in one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a document submitted to Middle East Eye that they were not invited to the conference on the grounds that they are a "party to the conflict." The document, dated March 14, noted: "Ironically, the UAE, which is effectively a party to the war, has been invited." The concept note for the London conference defines participants as "countries and international organizations that are focused on and committed to supporting Sudan's path to peace."

This has triggered anger from the Sudanese military-backed government, who stated: "The UAE's participation will only reduce the conference to a public relations stunt and whitewash its image as it faces accountability at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for alleged crimes of genocide." Middle East Eye has contacted the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for comment on the matter. The UK has also invited other countries involved in the war to attend the conference, including Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. These four countries are known to favor the Sudanese army over the Rapid Support Forces.

Last week, Sudan filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice, accusing the UAE of alleged involvement in acts of genocide against the Masalit community. Responding on social media, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said that "Sudan's priority should be to stop this absurd and destructive war and address the massive humanitarian disaster." He condemned the Sudanese army's pursuit of "weak media means to justify their rejection of peace and the political path." The U.S. government has determined that "members of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan." This primarily targets the Black African Masalit ethnic group in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Middle East Eye has previously reported on the UAE's support for the Rapid Support Forces, which is channeled through networks in Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, Uganda, and other parts of the Horn of Africa. Multiple sources have indicated that recent renewed attention and activity from plane-tracking accounts suggest that supply lines have shifted. Newly released 2024 foreign trade data shows that the UAE is the largest buyer of Sudanese products. No Sudanese officials, other than army general Yasser al-Atta, have publicly called for severing diplomatic relations with Abu Dhabi.

The UAE has consistently and publicly denied providing weapons to the Rapid Support Forces. But on December 18, Brett McGurk, a senior official in outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, wrote to Senator Chris Van Hollen stating that the UAE had assured the U.S. government that it was no longer "transferring any weapons" to the Rapid Support Forces. McGurk's statement amounted to a tacit admission that the UAE had, in fact, been supplying the RSF. On January 24, Van Hollen and his Democratic colleague Sara Jacobs announced that "based on briefings from the Biden administration, and as confirmed by recent reporting," they could confirm that the UAE "is providing weapons to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, directly contradicting its assurances to the United States."

News of the UK inviting the UAE but not the Sudanese military-backed government (now based in Port Sudan) to its conference came as a considerable surprise to Sudanese diplomats, who had previously believed that relations with the British government were warming. Last week, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy (who has stated "we must not forget Sudan," while previously avoiding questions in Parliament about the UAE's involvement in the war) dispatched Harriet Mathews, Director General for Africa, Americas and Overseas Territories, to Port Sudan to meet with members of the Sudanese government stationed there. Mathews expressed "deep concern" about a "parallel government supporting the Rapid Support Forces," referring to the government recently announced in Nairobi by Abdelrahim Dagalo, the deputy leader of the Rapid Support Forces and brother of its commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (better known as Hemedti).

This meeting, and other contacts between Sudanese and British officials, had led the Port Sudan government to believe that the UK no longer considered the army and the Rapid Support Forces equally responsible for the war. But after being excluded from the April London conference and with the inclusion of the UAE, the military-backed government stated that the UK needs to "reassess its position and recognize the Rapid Support Forces' existential threat to Sudan." The Sudanese military-backed document submitted to Middle East Eye stated: "The UAE's involvement must equally be recognized as the most important factor in prolonging the war."

Kholood Khair, a Sudanese analyst and founder of the Confluence Advisory think tank, told Middle East Eye that Mathews' visit to Port Sudan "seemed in part to assuage SAF's concerns about the UK's intentions with this conference." "But clearly they didn't discuss the UAE's role – or they didn't agree on the inclusion of the UAE. From a UK perspective, it doesn't make sense not to invite the UAE... and they've invited a lot of countries that are aligned with the SAF."

Whether the London conference can advance a diplomatic process that has made no progress during nearly two years of war is another matter. Cameron Hudson, a former CIA analyst and State Department official, said of the upcoming UK-organized event: "This is all performative." He told Middle East Eye: "If they were interested in ending the war, they would be looking for practical solutions, not preventing parties from attending talks." "The UAE needs to be involved in any process. But all the major players need to be involved too. But including the UAE and excluding Sudan misses the bigger picture."