In February 2021 Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, then the Deputy Prime Minister and now also the Vice President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), received a controversial visitor.
At the time General Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo was serving as Deputy Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan. He was also still the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a group which is in reality the rebranded Janjaweed militia who were responsible for the 2003-05 Darfur genocide, and more recently, had presided over the June 2019 massacre of at least 120 pro-democracy protesters on the streets of Khartoum.
Hemedti was already a friend to the UAE. The Emirates had reportedly paid him to send RSF fighters to Yemen as part of a Saudi-led collation to crush Houthi insurgents, in 2018. During his 2021 visit, he and Sheikh Mansour toured an arms fair, browsing exhibits of rockets and drones alongside the leader of the Chechen Republic.
Later that year, on 25 October, Hemedti and Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, President of the Sovereignty Council and leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), mounted a joint coup against the transitional government, returning Sudan to an era of repression reminiscent of the al-Bashir regime from which its people had secured their freedom in 2019.
In February 2023, with Hemedti at this point having overseen further violence against peaceful protesters and countless other human rights violations – and the coup to which he was party having been roundly condemned by the international community – he visited Sheikh Mansour once again. A press release from the time claims that the meeting ‘discussed the close bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries, and ways to enhance and develop them.’
Two months later, on 15 April 2023, the RSF and SAF entered into conflict just as the two parties were due to merge in what was meant to be a step towards a transition to democracy.
Over 150,000 people have been killed since then. Thirteen million have been displaced, and UN agencies estimate that more than 30 million, including nearly 15 million children, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
Both the RSF and the SAF stand accused by a UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission of war crimes, with the RSF also implicated in crimes against humanity. Both have inflicted untold misery on the people of Sudan, including sexual and gender-based violence, the deliberate targeting of civilians on account of their religious or ethnic identity, and the bombing of hospitals, schools, displacement camps and places of worship.
And yet the UAE continues to count Hemedti as a friend.
Shortly after the conflict broke out, the UAE set up a base at Am Djarass airport in Chad, where it claims to be running a humanitarian effort which, in reality, has served as a front to supply RSF fighters with sophisticated weaponry, including anti-tank missiles, armoured personnel carriers and guided bombs and howitzers – all either manufactured in, or re-exported by, the UAE.
The UN Panel of Experts on Sudan has concluded that allegations of the UAE supporting the RSF through Am Djarass are ‘credible’, and in September 2024 the New York Times reported that drones flying out of the airport had been seen hovering over El Fasher in Darfur – a city which spent 18 months under RSF siege before its capture amid widespread atrocities against civilians.
Further reporting indicates that the UAE may even have deployed personnel to fight alongside the RSF. Also, it has almost certainly helped hire and transport mercenaries from Colombia tasked with doing the same.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Mansour himself has been described as Hemedti’s closest ally in the Emirates. US intelligence officers have intercepted regular phone calls between him and Hemedti, and over a dozen African, Arab and US officials have claimed that he is at the forefront of the UAE’s campaign to expand its influence across Africa and the Middle East.
It is therefore apparent that the UAE’s support for the RSF is not just happening on Sheikh Mansour’s watch, but with his active involvement and approval.
But for all his wealth and influence, and all his country’s denials even in the face of extensive evidence, the Sheikh is not inaccessible. He is, of course, the owner of Manchester City Football Club – one of the most decorated teams in the most-watched sports league in the world.
By the Premier League’s own standards, this should be unacceptable. In March 2023 its clubs voted unanimously in favour of adding a ‘Disqualifying Event’ for ‘human rights abuses’ to the league’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test.
While said change is not articulated in the current Premier League handbook, the vote nonetheless reflects a consensus, and should at the very least grant the league a mandate to raise these issues with Sheikh Mansour, demanding that he ends his country’s support for the RSF, and instead directs its considerable resources to providing humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan as a means of reparation for the UAE’s complicity in the killing and displacement of millions.
If you agree, take action here.
By CSW’s Press & Public Affairs Officer Ellis Heasley