Report on the UAE’s Targeting of Sudanese Activists in a Coordinated Campaign Linked to Criticism of the Rapid Support Forces
A growing body of testimony indicates that the United Arab Emirates has undertaken a systematic campaign to intimidate, silence and detain Sudanese activists who publicly criticise the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary organization at the centre of the devastating conflict in Sudan. The recent detention of the Sudanese civil society figure Nader Maryoud in the Emirates has intensified scrutiny of this pattern. His arrest, described by family members and colleagues as arbitrary and unexplained, is viewed by Sudanese pro-democracy networks as part of a wider effort to shield the Rapid Support Forces from public criticism and international exposure.
Nader Maryoud is known as the spokesperson for the Resistance Committees movement in the Salha neighbourhood of Omdurman, a grassroots structure that has been central to Sudan’s pro-democracy mobilization. According to his brother, Nizar Maryoud, the engineer was seized by Emirati authorities more than two weeks before the family’s statement, held without any formal explanation, and denied access to legal representation. The Salha Resistance Committee publicly condemned his detention, emphasising that the arrest appeared to come directly after the group released a statement sharply critical of the Rapid Support Forces.
The context is essential. After a joint military takeover in the autumn of the year twenty twenty one, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces shared power uneasily. Plans to integrate the paramilitary led to open war in the spring of the year twenty twenty three. Since then, the conflict has left tens of thousands dead and displaced an estimated thirteen million people. Throughout the fighting, the Rapid Support Forces has been repeatedly accused by survivors, the United States and major human rights organisations of carrying out massacres, sexual violence, looting, forced disappearances and genocidal attacks, especially in the Darfur region.
The Salha neighbourhood, where Nader Maryoud’s committee is based, fell under Rapid Support Forces control shortly after the outbreak of war. Local residents recalled a months-long reign of terror that included the killing of at least thirty one members of the Jame’at tribe. The neighbourhood only emerged from Rapid Support Forces control in the month of May, when the Sudanese military forced the paramilitaries out.
The United Arab Emirates is widely viewed as the principal external sponsor of the Rapid Support Forces. Mounting evidence, corroborated by aid workers, satellite imagery and intelligence assessments, suggests that the Emirates has transferred weaponry to the Rapid Support Forces through a discreet network spanning Libya, Chad, Uganda and Somalia. Munitions originally produced in the United Kingdom and sold to the Emirates have been documented inside Sudan in the hands of Rapid Support Forces fighters. Amnesty International has further stated that Chinese-manufactured arms, including guided bombs and howitzer systems, were re-exported by the Emirates to the paramilitary group.
The recent capture of the city of el-Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces and the grisly aftermath has placed unprecedented pressure on the Emirates. Reports from survivors and humanitarian workers describe mass killings, executions of men and boys, ransom schemes using mobile banking applications, and widespread sexual violence, including rape and coercive searches of women. Satellite images appear to show extensive pools of blood and clusters of bodies. Witnesses recount the separation of men from women and children before executions, with children as young as toddlers killed in front of their families. Hostages were compelled to contact acquaintances to pay large ransoms, and some women were held in place of transferred funds.
These accounts have prompted the United Nations Human Rights Council to open an independent investigation. International concern has escalated to the highest diplomatic levels. The United States secretary of state, Marco Rubio, stated that Washington is aware of which government is supplying funds and arms to the Rapid Support Forces and warned that continued support would severely damage that state’s standing. Meanwhile, Arab and Western officials reported that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, intends to raise the issue directly with United States President Donald Trump. The crown prince is said to have spoken with the Sudanese Armed Forces commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who insisted that the war cannot end without Washington applying pressure on the Emirates.
Nader Maryoud is not the only Sudanese activist detained in the Emirates. Dozens remain imprisoned, including Mohamed Farouk Salman, a leading figure in the Forces of Freedom and Change coalition, who has been held since the month of January without public explanation.
Nizar Maryoud has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of his brother and urged the Emirates to guarantee his safety and allow access to legal counsel. For Sudanese civil society, the detention signals a coordinated effort by the Emirates to silence critics and to protect a paramilitary force implicated in grave atrocities across Sudan.
