Activists across the country have spent years demonstrating in solidarity with the Sudanese people, from London to Sheffield. People across England, Scotland and Wales continue to call for a full arms embargo on the UAE. It is widely documented that the UAE has been playing a key role in arming the RSF.
In October 2025, it was revealed that British-made military equipment that had been exported to the UAE was found in the hands of the RSF, responsible for genocidal atrocities in el-Fasher and the Sudanese genocide more broadly. This includes British engines, made by Cummins Inc, found in armoured vehicles and British-made small weapons target devices made by Militec. A UN fact-finding mission has since deemed the RSF’s massacres and use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in el-Fasher as genocide, while Amnesty International has classified the RSF’s siege as ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
Now, as it appears the RSF is likely to commit similar atrocities in the city of el-Obeid, our government has doubled down on its denial of the role of UK military equipment in the Sudanese genocide. The UAE is a significant customer of British arms exports, having received £427m in standard licenses since the start of the Sudanese civil war in April 2023.
At a meeting of the Business and Trade Sub-Committee on Economic Security, Arms and Export Controls last month, Monica Harding MP questioned government ministers about the UAE’s role in the Sudanese genocide, and ensuingly, the role of British arms exports to the UAE. She asked about the suitability of the UAE as a recipient for UK arms, given its violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
According to the UK’s Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (SELC), when approving arms export licenses, the Government must consider whether a country has breached IHL, the UK’s obligations to the international community and UN security council sanctions, and a buyer country’s respect for international law.
Despite these nominal criteria, exports continue, and ministers failed to give a straight answer as to how this can be justified. Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty MP responded that the UAE “has the right to defend themselves”. He further stated that “in relation to anything that could possibly be used to fuel this conflict, we are clear that no UK exports are.”.
He did not mention the UK military equipment found in the hands of the RSF, which the UK received evidence from the UN about last year.
Instead, throughout the committee meeting, Ministers Doughty and now former Trade Minister Sir Chris Bryant evaded questions about breaches of the UK’s international obligations as a result of continued arms sales, including the UN Security Council’s arms embargo on Sudan. Shamefully, such is the Government’s unwillingness to criticise the UAE, they had to be asked three times before even naming the UAE as having had any role in arming the atrocities.
Bryant also responded to a question from Steve Witherden MP about the UK arming the UAE and IHL violations in Sudan with platitudes that they have found “no evidence of UK weapons or ammunition being used in Sudan”.
Using specific and careful language regarding “no UK weapons or ammunition” allows our government to continue to fail to address the role of the Cummins engines and the Militec targeting devices.
How can the Militec targeting devices not be considered “weapons”? Why is other military equipment playing a role in the genocide, such as the Cummins engines found in armoured vehicles, not being addressed? How can we be certain that more UK military exports have not been used by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as long as the UAE remains a major recipient of UK weapons exports?
Irrespective of the extent to which it is UK-manufactured weapons that the UAE is using to arm the RSF, the UK cannot continue to sell arms to a state that is actively equipping the ongoing atrocities we are seeing in Sudan. This is why a full arms embargo on the UAE remains a key demand for our government. If you have not signed already, please take a moment to sign CAAT’s petition making this call.
Furthermore, the UK continuing to export weapons to the UAE during the Sudanese genocide is playing a role in reinforcing the violent instability created in the country following decades of British colonial subjugation during the twentieth century.
Most countries which have faced the historic brutality of British colonialism have suffered from long periods of violent civil wars and upheavals. The British colonial legacy can’t be ignored as the world grieves the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people who have been killed in the genocidal civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
Arms embargo on the UAE now! The UK must stop arming the RSF through its weapon exports to the UAE, and it is up to all of us to make this call so loud that our government can no longer evade responding to it.
