What Does the UAE Want from Sudan?
By Salma Hamad
Why is the United Arab Emirates spending billions in a war-torn, impoverished country like Sudan?
Is Abu Dhabi really pouring in all this money merely to fight political Islam?
These questions echo amid the blood of victims and the dismay of observers. To begin to answer them, one can turn to an AFP report published on May 2, 2023, under the title “The War of Lamps and the Buried Treasure.”
The report noted: “Sudan represents a buried treasure for major powers. It possesses 200 million acres of fertile agricultural land, 11 flowing rivers, 102 million head of livestock, and 400 billion cubic meters of annual rainfall. It also has 1.4 million tons of uranium, 6.8 billion barrels of oil, and 85 billion cubic meters of gas. Sudan ranks second in Africa in gold production, exceeding 90 million tons annually—worth around $5 billion—along with silver, copper, uranium, and more, in addition to its geo-strategic location on the Red Sea and as a gateway to the Horn of Africa.”
This is Sudan in the eyes of opportunists: a buried treasure, a grand prize awaiting whoever can seize it.
For the UAE, Sudan is more than just a prize—it is a potential solution to its own structural crises in food security and natural resources, as well as a vast human reservoir for mercenaries. With fewer than one million citizens, the UAE seeks to project itself as a global power through money and arms, believing it can subdue nations and monopolize their wealth.
Despite its oil riches, the UAE is poor in other natural resources. It has no fertile land, no rivers, and little agriculture. Its prosperity began only after exporting its first shipment of oil in 1962, and ever since it has been haunted by the specter of “the post-oil era.” To safeguard its wealth, it turned to the simplest tools of political and military influence.
Central to this strategy is the acquisition of ports and waterways to control global trade routes. Yet, many of its ventures failed: from Doraleh port in Djibouti, Berbera and Bosaso in Somalia, and Izmir’s Sancak port in Turkey, to Abu Amama in Sudan. Even Dubai Ports World’s attempt to privatize Port Sudan collapsed under public pressure. In 2006, U.S. Congress blocked its bid to control ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Miami, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.
The UAE eventually realized that wealth alone cannot build global influence, and that stockpiling modern weapons does not make a real army. Major powers must command manpower. Thus, Sudan became its target—both as a supplier of fighters and a platform for its expanding empire. Thousands of Sudanese troops have already been deployed by the UAE in Yemen and in support of its ally, Khalifa Haftar, in Libya.
Evidence of Abu Dhabi’s military expansion is visible in its growing network of bases surrounding Sudan like a tightening bracelet:
Abd al-Kuri Island near Socotra (Gulf of Aden)
Al-Mokha port (Red Sea)
Mayun Island (Bab al-Mandab)
Al-Riyan in Hadramout
Bosaso and Berbera (Somalia)
Um Bile (Chad)
Assab (Eritrea)
Khuruba and Al-Khadim (Libya)
Birao (Central African Republic)
A so-called “field hospital” in East Aweil (South Sudan)
These bases encircle Sudan in preparation for controlling its resources. The UAE has already secured about 90% of Sudan’s gold exports and begun smuggling uranium and rare minerals from the copper-rich Kafia Kingi area, now under RSF control.
On the agricultural front, Abu Dhabi has sought to seize Sudan’s most fertile lands and flagship projects:
The Wadi Howar project (2.4 million acres, expandable to 5 million), one of the world’s largest food security initiatives.
A 300,000-acre rain-fed project in the Northern State.
The “Zayed Al-Khair” project in Gezira State (40,000 acres).
The Abu Hamed project (400,000 acres) linked to the proposed Abu Amama port.
But the Emirati strategy goes even further—towards demographic change. Abu Dhabi views central and northern Sudanese communities as the strongest defenders of national identity and statehood, historically resistant to foreign domination. To weaken this base, it has allegedly supported waves of forced displacement, marked by mass killings, rape, and expulsions, with the aim of emptying strategic agricultural areas and replacing populations.
From a geopolitical perspective, controlling Sudan’s Red Sea ports would allow the UAE to influence vital global trade arteries—from the Bab al-Mandab to the Suez Canal.
And what of the oft-repeated claim that the UAE is merely fighting “political Islam”? In reality, it is a convenient smokescreen—used to divide Sudanese ranks and convince the naïve that its war is against Islamists, not against Sudan itself.
The bottom line:
The encirclement of Sudan with military bases, the plundering of its resources, the seizure of its land and waters, and the bid to dominate its ports and strategic location are all tools in the UAE’s project to build global influence. Sudan, in this vision, is neither neighbor nor partner—but a storehouse of wealth and manpower to sustain Emirati prosperity beyond oil.
As Le Monde noted in an April 29, 2023 report: “The UAE is planning to plunge Sudan into unending chaos as an alternative to the failed coup it backed through the Rapid Support Forces.”
Sudan’s current tragedy is thus not merely an internal conflict. It is part of an organized external project to dispossess its people of their land, resources, and sovereignty. Unless Sudanese recognize this reality and confront it with unity and resolve, their country will remain hostage to regional schemes that see it only as “a treasure to plunder and a geography to exploit.”
