clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

UAE mocks Sudan's ICJ genocide case as ‘political farce’

April 11, 2025 at 1:25 pm

Amiera AlHefeiti (L) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) waits for the start of a hearing before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on April 10, 2025. [REMKO DE WAAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has mocked the genocide case filed by Sudan against it before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a “political farce”.

Reem Keteit, deputy assistant minister for Political Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday the case was a “blatant exploitation of a respected international institution,” stressing that it “completely lacks any legal or practical basis.”

She claimed “what Sudan needs today is not political farce, but rather an immediate ceasefire and a serious commitment by both conflicting parties to negotiate a peaceful solution.”

Sudan told the ICJ yesterday that the UAE was the “driving force” behind “genocide in Darfur”, through its support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighting the Sudanese army.

Khartoum accused the UAE of “complicity in genocide” against the Masalit tribe due to its support for the RSF, which have been fighting the Sudanese army since 2023.

At the start of the court hearings, Sudan’s Acting Minister of Justice, Muawia Osman, said: “The support provided by the United Arab Emirates, which continues today to the RSF and its allied militias, remains the main driver of genocide, manifested in killings, rapes, forced displacement and looting.”

The UAE has long denied supplying weapons to the RSF.

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

READ: 33 rights groups call on UK, EU to help secure release of rights activist forcibly disappeared by UAE