EU says ‘concerns’ raised with UAE over its role in Sudan war
EU-functionarissen hebben recent hun collega’s uit de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten (VAE) aangesproken over de militaire steun van dat land aan de Soedanese militie Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Die wordt door steeds meer bronnen beschuldigd van grootschalige oorlogsmisdaden, zelfs van genocide in Darfur, en voortdurende aanvallen op VN-hulpkonvooien in de al bijna drie jaar durende burgeroorlog in Soedan.
Woordvoerder Anouar el Anouni van de commissie voor Buitenlandse Zaken vertelde verslaggevers op maandag 9 februari dat de EU “tijdens haar politieke dialogen en uitwisselingen met de VAE haar bezorgdheid heeft geuit over de gerapporteerde steun van de VAE aan de RSF op verschillende niveaus”.
The EU has faced criticism in some quarters for declining to sanction the RSF in its entirety as a terrorist organisation, and for holding trade talks with the UAE despite Abu Dhabi’s leading proxy role in the Sudan civil war, which has killed an estimated 400,000 people and displaced several million.
The EU added five senior players in the Rapid Support Forces, including Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa, a brother of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo aka ‘Hemeti’, to its sanctions list at its most recent meeting of foreign affairs minister on 29 January 2026.
Two allies of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), which supports the government in Khartoum, were also added to its sanctions list including Al-Misbah Abu Zaid Talha, the Commander of the Islamist militia Baraa bin Malik Battalion.
The SAF, which controls the current government in Khartoum, has been pushing the EU to take a tougher stance against the RSF and the UAE, including by designating the RSF as a terrorist organisation — a move that has been resisted by Brussels. It has also called for the EU to lift sanctions against the SAF.
Three years of civil war
After nearly three years of civil war, Sudan has effectively been partitioned, with the SAF controlling the capital Khartoum and the key port of Port Sudan in the country’s northeast. The RSF, meanwhile, controls Darfur and most of western Sudan.
The war has also become a proxy conflict for the Gulf states.
The UAE is the RSF main international ally and has supplied it with cash and weapons in exchange for gold.
For its part, the SAF is backed by Egypt and Somalia, while Saudi Arabia has promised to help finance the rebuilding of Khartoum and wants to increase its own gold purchases.
A commission spokesperson also pointed to a “dramatic escalation of violence” in the civil war in recent weeks.
Last week, the RSF was blamed for an attack which killed at least 24 civilians in western Sudan, a day after attacking a UN World Food Programme convoy carrying emergency food supplies in the same region.
UN and other international aid agencies have reported that multiple war crimes and atrocities have been committed by both sides, with some warning that the RSF’s crimes in the Darfur region may amount to genocide.
Brussels’ trade agenda
The EU’s diplomatic role has, arguably, been complicated by its trade diversification agenda.
The EU and UAE are currently engaged in negotiations on a trade deal which started last July and, say officials, have advanced rapidly. A fifth round of trade talks is expected to be held in the coming weeks.
The EU commission is also in talks on a similar deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional bloc which also includes Saudi Arabia.
A trade pact with Brussels would, UAE hopes, help to diversify its own economy beyond oil and enhance its role as a trade and investment hub in the Middle East.
For its part, EU officials hope that an agreement could secure better access to energy resources and critical raw materials, both key priorities as the bloc seeks to reduce its dependence on Russia and China.
Benjamin Fox
Benjamin Fox is redacteur voor handel en geopolitiek bij de NGO EUObserver. Zijn artikelen zijn onder meer gepubliceerd in The Guardian, The East African, Euractiv, Private Eye en Africa Confidential. Hij is gevestigd in Nairobi, Kenia, maar doet vaak verslag vanuit Londen.
Dit artikel verscheen op 9 februari 2026 op de website van EUObserver: https://euobserver.com/202243/eu-says-concerns-raised-with-uae-over-its-role-in-sudan-war/
Lees ook:
– EC Midday press briefing of 09/02/2026HUMANITARIAN AID / FOREIGN AFFAIRS – Sudan: Q&A https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video/I-284659
– Genocide in Sudan, the role of the UAE, and the complicity of the West https://cimic-npo.org/2025/11/24/67-015/
– How the UAE’s mafia-style tactics are hurting both Sudans https://cimic-npo.org/2024/06/30/54-009/
– RSF killings in Sudan bear signs of genocide, UN says. A UN fact-finding body says mass killings by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher carry the hallmarks of genocide, with thousands reported killed. Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan breaks down the findings, which accuse the RSF of rape, torture, and extortion https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/2/20/rsf-killings-in-sudan-bear-signs-of-genocide-un-says
– De oorlog in Soedan waar de dood regeert https://cimic-npo.org/2025/09/27/65-019/
– Sudan: Türk warns of catastrophic surge in violence https://cimic-npo.org/2025/06/24/64-005/
– Resilience in times of war: how WRI members in Sudan are sustaining their work for peace https://cimic-npo.org/2025/04/18/92-003/
– ‘The International Community Must Stop Turning a Blind Eye to the Suffering of Sudanese Women’ https://cimic-npo.org/2024/11/18/the-international-community-must-stop-turning-a-blind-eye-to-the-suffering-of-sudanese-women/
– ‘Barely anyone left’: Sudan’s El-Fasher devastated by fighting https://cimic-npo.org/2024/09/26/55-012/
– Mohamed Kordofani’s ‘Goodbye Julia’ brengt dieperliggende oorzaken van oorlog en conflict in Soedan onder de aandacht https://cimic-npo.org/2024/05/27/53-013/
– Sudan: Urgent Action Needed on Hunger Crisis https://cimic-npo.org/2024/03/28/51-012
– De oorlog die Europa nauwelijks ziet: waarom de grootste humanitaire crisis ter wereld buiten beeld blijft (VRT, 22 februari 2026) https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/02/22/soedan-sluitstuk/
Lees ook (inhoud febuari 2026)
