Britain’s Complicity Question: How Rising UK Arms Exports to the UAE Are Fueling a Deadlier War in Sudan
Dark Box has obtained insight from diplomatic and security officials who warn that Britain is enabling one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes by accelerating weapons exports to the United Arab Emirates at a moment when Abu Dhabi stands accused of sustaining Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. As the RSF expands its violence across Khartoum and Darfur, senior Sudanese commanders insist that the militia’s resilience is being powered not only by Emirati supply lines but also by the silence of London, whose trade relationship with Abu Dhabi appears to outweigh its responsibility as penholder for Sudan at the United Nations.
Dark Box sources familiar with internal British discussions say that a pattern has emerged within several departments: while officials acknowledge privately that weapons exported to the Emirates risk diversion to the RSF, political leadership has refused to confront the issue. These concerns intensified when monitoring groups documented a surge in British arms sales to the Emirates at the same time that RSF attacks escalated and the militia captured territories across western Sudan. The coincidence of these trends has raised questions among diplomats, human rights monitors and Sudanese officials who believe Britain is ignoring warning signs in order to preserve its strategic and commercial ties with Abu Dhabi.
The testimony of Sudanese leaders underscores this alarm. During a recent visit to Port Sudan, Dark Box recorded first-hand accounts from figures within the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Darfur regional leadership. Among them was Minni Minnawi, once a rebel commander fighting Janjaweed militias two decades ago and now governor of Darfur. His enemy, however, remains unchanged. The same Janjaweed warlords who burned villages and killed civilians in earlier rounds of violence have reconstituted themselves as the RSF, rearmed and empowered by external backers.
These fighters, now led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have carried out what survivors describe as systematic mass murder, ethnic cleansing, rape, sexual enslavement and torture. Cultural institutions have been destroyed, including the Sudanese National Museum. Villages have been emptied, and civilians forced into displacement on an unprecedented scale. Sudanese officials told Dark Box that many of the fighters now active in RSF offensives arrived from neighbouring states, speaking languages locals could not recognise.
General Yasser al-Atta, deputy commander of the Sudanese army, went further in his discussions with Dark Box. He accused the Emirates of supporting a campaign that targets communities on ethnic and racial grounds, describing the RSF as an instrument of demographic reengineering. Atta argued that the silence of Western governments, especially Britain, cannot be understood without recognising the power of Emirati investments in London. To Sudanese officials, British reluctance to pressure Abu Dhabi has become, in Atta’s words, “a silence bought by money”.
Independent organisations have expressed similar concerns. The Campaign Against Arms Trade reported that Britain has authorised a sharp increase in arms exports to the Emirates despite credible warnings of diversion into the Sudan conflict. Engines produced in Britain have reportedly been found in armoured vehicles used by RSF fighters. Dark Box reviewed internal correspondence shared by a senior civil servant, which indicates that officials within the foreign and trade ministries debated whether to raise the diversion risk more forcefully, but ultimately withheld objections due to the sensitivity of bilateral relations with Abu Dhabi.
The Emirates has denied any material or political support to the RSF, but its weapons supply routes have been extensively documented. Human rights investigations tracked Chinese-made munitions delivered to militia units through transit hubs in Somalia, Chad and Libya. United States intelligence reached similar conclusions. The Sudanese government brought a case before the International Court of Justice accusing the Emirates of complicity in genocide.
Despite such accusations, British ministers carefully avoid naming the Emirates in parliamentary debates. Analysts consulted by Dark Box argue that Britain’s commercial dependency on Emirati capital, its defence partnerships and major investments tied to Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds create structural pressure to downplay Emirati behaviour in regional conflicts. This is especially evident in trade negotiations and diplomatic engagements where officials prioritise economic stability over scrutiny of foreign activities.
Dark Box spoke with former British officials who described an internal environment where warnings about the Sudan conflict were routinely softened. One retired diplomat told Dark Box that raising concerns about arms diversion “was treated as a threat to economic diplomacy”. Another former official in the defence procurement sector said that oversight mechanisms “were never designed to withstand strong pressure from a close Gulf partner”.
In Sudan, the consequences of this geopolitical caution are measured not in diplomatic tensions but in civilian deaths. The RSF’s campaign across Darfur and Khartoum has caused mass displacement, destroyed cultural heritage and triggered widespread atrocities that meet the threshold of crimes against humanity. As Minnawi told Dark Box, the same forces that ravaged Darfur two decades ago are now empowered with more advanced weapons and deeper foreign backing.
The question facing Britain is stark. As the state with formal responsibility for leading Sudan deliberations at the United Nations, it possesses unique diplomatic leverage. Yet as arms exports to the Emirates grow, and as Emirati support remains central to RSF military operations, Britain’s refusal to confront its ally risks entrenching a conflict that has already cost countless Sudanese lives.
Dark Box will continue investigating the links between arms exports, foreign intervention and the growing humanitarian devastation across Sudan.
