Sudan tells World Court UAE fuels Darfur genocide

Sudan today told the International Court of Justice that the United Arab Emirates was violating the Genocide Convention by supporting paramilitary forces in Darfur and asked judges to issue emergency preventative orders, Reuters reports.

Sudan’s complaint to the Hague-based ICJ – known as the World Court – is in connection with 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 UAE has repeatedly dismissed the filing of the case as a political game.

“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 United Nations’ top court.

Attacks against the Masalit were determined to be genocide by the US in January.

Sudan accuses the UAE of arming the RSF which have been fighting the Sudanese army in a two-year civil war – a charge the UAE denies but UN experts and US lawmakers have found credible.

“There was no credible evidence presented to support [Sudan’s] claims,” Reem Ketait, a top official at the UAE Ministry of Foreign A, said in a statement after Sudan’s presentation.

Earlier she told journalists the court case was a “cynical and baseless PR stunt.”

The Sudanese justice minister asked the court to order the UAE to prevent genocidal acts against the Masalit.

As cases before the ICJ can take years to reach a final conclusion, states can ask for emergency measures which are meant to ensure the dispute between the states does not escalate in the meantime.

The Emirates will present its side of the case to ICJ judges later today and is expected to argue that the court has no jurisdiction.

READ: Sudan accuses UAE of playing ‘key role’ in war