Evidence Reveals New Details About UAE Support to Militias

Data from flight records and satellite images have revealed that since the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan last year, dozens of cargo planes coming from the UAE have landed at a small airstrip in Chad, which experts from the United Nations and diplomats suspect has been used to transport weapons across the border into Sudan.

Flight data and documents from companies reviewed by Reuters point to at least 86 flights from the UAE to an airstrip in Am Jarras in eastern Chad since the war began in April 2023. Three-quarters of these flights were operated by airlines that the UN accuses of transporting weapons from the UAE to Libya.

The UAE, a key ally of the West in the Middle East, states that it is sending aid to Sudan via Chad, not weapons.

The UAE rejected a report by a UN expert committee issued in January, which referred to “reliable” claims that the UAE had supplied military supplies through an airstrip in Chad to the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are fighting the Sudanese army in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions.

A video, taken this year in Am Jarras and never previously published, and reviewed by Reuters, shows two wooden platforms on the runway loaded with boxes of a khaki color, some bearing the UAE flag.

Reuters withheld the exact date and source of the footage to avoid risks of retaliation.

Three weapons experts, two of whom have worked as UN investigators, stated that the boxes likely do not contain humanitarian aid, which is usually packed in cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic and stacked high on wooden platforms due to their light weight. The boxes in the video appear to be metal and stacked in low piles on the wooden platforms.

One of the experts, who previously worked as a UN weapons inspector and requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information, said that the contents “are highly likely to be ammunition or weapons, based on the design and color of the boxes.” He added that the length and low height of the boxes on the transport platform on the right side suggest they likely contain weapons.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the contents of the boxes. It refrained from mentioning the exact date of the footage to protect the source.

The UAE government, in a statement sent to Reuters, said it had sent 159 relief flights carrying over 10,000 tons of food and medical aid, partly aimed at supplying a field hospital it set up in Am Jarras.

The statement in English read, “We strongly reject unfounded claims regarding the provision of weapons and military equipment to any of the warring parties since the onset of the conflict.”

Since the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, the UAE has intervened in conflicts ranging from Yemen to Libya, partly to counter Islamic groups. The UAE views these groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, as a threat to internal stability.

Brigadier General Omar Hamdan, a senior officer of the RSF, denied that his group received any external support. He told reporters in Nairobi on November 18 that the RSF uses weapons and ammunition produced in Sudan, without specifying the factories. The RSF did not respond to requests for comment on this report.

Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, spokesman for the Sudanese army, stated in a written Arabic statement sent to Reuters that the provision of Emirati weapons to the RSF is “not a mere accusation but concrete facts.” He continued, “The flow of weapons and equipment from the UAE to the RSF militia has not stopped since the war broke out, and we in the armed forces have provided much evidence proving this Emirati involvement, which included weapons, equipment, and medicines bearing the UAE’s insignia in many of the locations that our forces controlled and that were under the hands of the rebels.”

The fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF began in mid-April 2023 when the two factions, who had jointly taken full control of power in a coup two years earlier, competed to protect their interests before a transition to civilian rule.

The RSF swept through most of the capital Khartoum before strengthening its grip on the Darfur region bordering Chad in the west and advancing southward. The roots of the RSF trace back to the Janjaweed militias that the Sudanese government used to brutally suppress the rebellion in Darfur two decades ago.

Justin Lynch, a senior analyst at the Sudan Conflict Observatory, which reviewed Reuters’ analysis of flight data, said, “Logistical support helps win wars, and the UAE has used this network of aircraft to continuously facilitate the flow of weapons to the RSF.”

He added, “The weapons supplied by the UAE to the RSF have changed the balance of power in the conflict in Sudan, prolonging the war and increasing civilian casualties.”

The UAE said its operations in Am Jarras were limited to humanitarian efforts, such as establishing a field hospital there where the UAE Red Crescent treated more than 18,000 Sudanese refugees.

Tomaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters that the Federation had not participated in operations in Am Jarras and was unaware of the field hospital until it was announced by UAE officials. He added that two fact-finding missions sent by the Federation to Chad to better understand the situation were unable to reach the field hospital due to security conditions.

William Spindler, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, stated that the Commission had not sent any refugees to the hospital.

A Chadian security officer who was sent to Am Jarras this year said he witnessed planes arriving with boxes similar to those used by his unit for transporting weapons. The source, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, stated that his unit participated in guarding the boxes to the border with Sudan, where they were received by RSF fighters.

Chadian authorities did not respond to requests for comment on the flights and operations in Am Jarras. The Sudanese military has also not responded to a request for comment.

Three aid workers familiar with the situation in eastern Chad, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that the aid deliveries were nowhere near the scale that the UAE claims to have sent.

A source familiar with meetings between UAE representatives and senior US officials in Washington this fall said that the UAE representatives had backed down from denying support to the RSF after being briefed on intelligence gathered by Washington.

A US State Department spokesperson said, “We are deeply engaged in high-level dialogue with regional partners to highlight the risks associated with supporting combatants, which could prolong the conflict.” The spokesperson declined to provide further comments on the meetings.

The New York Times previously published a report stating that the UAE had used humanitarian aid as a cover to ship weapons, ammunition, and drones to the RSF via the Am Jarras airstrip. The report was based on satellite images and statements from current and former officials from the US, Europe, and African countries.

Reuters identified a total of 170 flights, using satellite images from Planet, Maxar, and Black Sky, from UAE-based aircraft to Am Jarras since the war began.

Reuters was able to verify that at least 86 of these flights originated from airports in the UAE, including Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, and Ras Al Khaimah. However, Reuters could not confirm the departure points of other flights due to gaps in flight tracking.

An analysis by Reuters of the 170 flights directed to eastern Chad revealed that about half were operated by four airlines that the UN Expert Committee had accused of transporting Emirati military support to Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar’s forces in eastern Libya (the Libyan National Army) in 2019 and 2020, according to flight tracking data.

The airlines are Zitaavia and Fly Sky Airlines, both based in Ukraine, and Fly Sky Kyrgyz and Sapsan Airlines, based in Kyrgyzstan.

No previous reports had linked these four airlines, and Reuters could not determine what the planes were carrying.

An October report by the Sudan Conflict Observatory, funded by the US State Department, mentioned another airline, New Way Cargo, based in Kyrgyzstan, that provides support to the RSF with Emirati backing through Chad.

The airlines and a spokesperson for Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, did not respond to requests for comment.

After the UN Expert Committee’s findings in 2021, authorities in Ukraine and Kazakhstan deregistered several aircraft, which were later re-registered in Kyrgyzstan.

Neither Zitaavia nor Sapsan responded to the Committee’s findings. Fly Sky Airlines told the UN Committee that the shipment it transported “was not a military shipment subject to UN Security Council sanctions.”

According to Reuters’ analysis of data from FlightRadar24, many of the 170 flights made brief stops in Kenya at Nairobi and Mombasa airports, but they also stopped in Entebbe, Uganda, Kigali, Rwanda, and Bossaso in Puntland, an autonomous region in Somalia.

In Somaliland, the secessionist Somali region, a senior official told Reuters that flights arriving from the UAE and stopping in Berbera were carrying military equipment, according to information that included landing requests sent to airport authorities. The official requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. Reuters could not review the landing requests or verify the information independently.

Six local officials and diplomats stated that the UAE had established relations with Somaliland beginning in 2017 with the construction of a military base in Berbera, which later became a military airport.

Kenya’s airports authority, the foreign ministries, and the airport authorities in Rwanda, Uganda, Puntland, and Somaliland did not respond to requests for comment.

Nine officials from the United States, the UK, and the African Union told Reuters that they are closely monitoring the flow of military support from the UAE to the RSF via Chad, although they have not made any public accusations.

The African Union did not respond to a request for comment. A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said that the UK continues to engage diplomatically in every way possible to end the violence.