Sudan told the International Court of Justice on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates was violating the Genocide Convention by supporting paramilitary forces in Darfur. Sudan said the alleged genocide against the Masalit community in Darfur by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would not be possible without the support of the UAE.
Sudanese people are hailing the hearing a milestone in holding the Arab nation accountable for its support for RSF, an accusation the UAE publicly denounce despite several evidence presented by independent rights groups.
Sudan asked the judges to issue emergency preventative orders in the case, focused on intense ethnic-based attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias against the non-Arab Masalit tribe in 2023 in West Darfur.
“The genocide against the Masalit is being carried out by the Rapid Support Force, believed to be Arab from Darfur, with the support and complicity of the United Arab Emirates,” Sudan’s acting justice minister, Muawia Osman, told the court.
The UAE has dismissed the allegations during its argument. The West Asian country swiftly labeled Sudan’s move a “cynical publicity stunt,” aiming to divert attention from the Sudanese Armed Forces’ own alleged atrocities.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed, publicly denounced the case as “farcical.”
“It is clear beyond doubt that there is no jurisdiction. We therefore call upon the court to remove the case from the general list,” Reem Ketait, a top official at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the court.
Khartoum has requested that the ICJ implement several provisional measures, which include ordering the UAE to take measures to prevent: the killing and causing serious harm towards the Masalit, deliberately inflicting conditions to bring about the physical destruction of the group, and the imposition of measures that are intended to prevent births within the group.
“There can be no doubt that the Masalit people is currently being subjected to genocide, and that there is serious evidence that the UAE is failing to prevent this and is complicit,” Eirik Bjorge, a professor of law representing Sudan, told the court.
He said that the RSF had used heavy and sophisticated weapons, of which a key reported supply route was from Abu Dhabi via Amdjarass airport in Chad. The UAE has built a field hospital near the airport in Chad, using the banner of the Red Crescent.
“But, tellingly, when the Red Cross sought to visit in order to understand what the UAE operation was doing under its protected banner, the officials were turned away for security reasons,” Bjorge said.
For nearly two years, the RSF and the Sudanese army have fought a war that has killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than 12 million people.
