UAE increasing support to Sudan's RSF with new Chinese drones: Report

US intelligence agencies reported as recently as October that the UAE has increased its supply of Chinese drones and other weapon systems to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The Department of Defence’s intelligence agency and the State Department’s intelligence bureau both reported an increase in the flow of weapons from the UAE to the rebel group that has been accused of committing genocide in Darfur, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal.

The supplies include advanced Chinese-made drones along with small arms, heavy machine guns, vehicles, artillery, mortars, and ammunition.

The UAE’s support for the RSF has been well documented, and much of the WSJ report corroborates Middle East Eye’s exclusive reporting on the UAE’s role in the conflict. 

MEE reported in January 2024 that the UAE was supplying the RSF with weapons through a complex network of supply lines and alliances stretching across Libya, Chad, Uganda, and breakaway regions of Somalia.

In May, Amnesty International found that the UAE was sending Chinese-made weaponry, including GB50A-guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers, into Darfur, where the RSF has been laying siege to several cities.

This week, the RSF stormed into the North Darfur city of el-Fasher, where RSF fighters have since filmed themselves massacring civilians.

The RSF’s conquest of el-Fasher comes on the heels of collapsed US-sponsored peace talks.

Sources told MEE that the UAE, which is the RSF’s most significant patron, refused to address the situation in el-Fasher, which has been under siege for over 500 days. The talks collapsed on Friday. 

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According to the WSJ report, the UAE’s support for the RSF picked up after March when the Sudanese Army, which is backed by Iran, Turkey and Egypt, retook the entire Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

In May, MEE reported that the UAE directed a series of precision attacks with Chinese drones on government-controlled Port Sudan that wounded several members of a Turkish technical team assisting the Sudanese military.

The WSJ report said the UAE was now supplying the RSF with so-called Rainbow series drones made by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, a Chinese government contractor.

One of the models, called the CH-95, is capable of firing precision weapons and flying 24 hours at a time, enabling long-range reconnaissance and air strikes.

After its setback in Khartoum, the RSF went on the offensive in Darfur, the vast region of western Sudan. The RSF originated there as the janjaweed, a horse-mounted militia that perpetrated massacres against non-Arabs there for the former government of Omar Bashir.

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the RSF that is better known as Hemeti, is close to the UAE and has headquartered his commercial empire in Dubai. He and his family have used the emirate to smuggle vast amounts of gold, taken from mines in Darfur, which his paramilitary controls.