Trump Urged to Pressure UAE to Stop Supporting the Janjaweed
By Nicholas Kristof
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are responsible for some of the worst atrocities, including burning entire villages, massacres, and systematic sexual violence.
The United Arab Emirates, in particular, appears to be the main backer of the RSF, despite its denials, supporting its campaign of atrocities.
While the Biden administration has refused to hold the UAE accountable—and now the Trump administration seems to be doing the same—Congress has stepped up to provide more leadership. Some lawmakers are pushing to block arms transfers to the UAE while it continues to enable mass killings and sexual violence. This is a useful leverage point: the UAE is a country sensitive to its reputation, and public pressure has previously compelled it to withdraw from the disastrous war in Yemen.
What can Trump do? It would be helpful if he urged the UAE to stop supplying the RSF—or at least to end the atrocities. He could appoint a special envoy for Sudan and increase U.S. support for grassroots Sudanese aid programs, such as emergency response centers running community kitchens.
World leaders will gather at the United Nations in September to repeat platitudes about making the world a better place. One test of their sincerity is what they will do for the major Sudanese city of El Fasher, besieged by the RSF and facing famine. Sudan observers fear that if El Fasher falls, the RSF will engage in mass killings and sexual violence, as it has elsewhere.
“Here in El Fasher, we are starving,” Avaz Sudan Dispatch, a news outlet tracking Sudan, quoted a civilian in the city as saying. “The responsibility is not just on those who carry guns. It is the world. The Arab states. The African Union. Europe. The so-called international community. All of them.”
The civilian continued: “We know they can help. We know they have the ability to drop food by air. They have planes. They have supplies. But they choose not to.”
