United States President Trump may want to see a ceasefire in Sudan, but Washington’s close ties with the United Arab Emirates are keeping the administration from being more assertive in trying to stop the fighting between the Rapid Support Forces and the national army, the Sudanese Armed Forces.
This week, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, fully breached the city of El Fashir in North Darfur, after more than a year and a half of besieging the area. Within a few days, the militia reportedly massacred, summarily executed, tortured, kidnapped or ransomed thousands of people, including 460 patients and their companions at a hospital, according to the World Health Organization. The rampage in El Fasher was documented by the RSF’s own videos posted on social media, such as shooting shirtless young men at point blank, and by open-source and other independent nongovernmental organizations for the world to see.
Dorothy Shea, the US deputy representative to the United Nations, condemned the paramilitary group RSF during a Security Council emergency session on Oct. 30, describing the recent atrocities and others committed by the militia and its allies as a “genocide.” (The Biden administration labeled the RSF’s actions in Sudan a genocide in early January 2025.)
“The United States condemns these abhorrent atrocities in no uncertain terms,” Shea said. “Those responsible should be held accountable, including through sanctions, as noted by the Sudan Sanctions Panel of Experts in its most recent report. Together, we are focused on securing an immediate humanitarian truce, halting external support, and advancing a transition to civilian governance.”
But the militia remains strong partly because of the military support it receives from the United Arab Emirates, one of Washington’s closest allies in the Gulf region. The Sudanese government, the UN and numerous media reports have documented repeatedly how the UAE has been supplying the RSF with weapons and ammunition to fuel the war since 2023. Abu Dhabi continues to deny the claim and maintains its involvement in Sudan is only humanitarian.
A Sudanese diplomat at the UN told PassBlue that the war could end if Washington reins in its Gulf ally. But the relationship with Abu Dhabi is vital to Trump’s foreign policy ambitions and too valuable to risk over Sudan.
“The US will do all the wrong things here,” Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, said. “Under both the Biden and Trump administrations, the US has prioritized its economic, military and technological relationship with the UAE over the lives of these people. The UAE matters more than Black African people in Darfur to the United States and the United Kingdom.”
Al Harith Idriss al Harith Mohamed, the Sudanese envoy to the UN, criticized remarks made by the UAE in the Council meeting on Oct. 30, saying afterward to PassBlue that the Emirati spoke as if “Sudan is under the trusteeship of the UAE. He has no right to speak about Sudan.” (Under the Council’s Rule 37, a UN member state can be invited to make a statement in a Council meeting.)
The UAE, the Sudanese envoy added, is using the Council platform “to try to whitewash their face that they are supporting Sudan and they are supporting the humanitarian assistance, and they are really very eager to see peace occurring, while at nighttime they continue to send shipments of arms to Darfur, trying to reinforce the militia’s position and military status.”
The US is partnering with the UAE to secure its supply chain for critical minerals to use in semiconductors and defense technologies. The New York Times has also reported how the US relationship with the UAE has expanded the Trump family’s private crypto and real estate businesses.
With Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Washington recently convened an informal group dubbed the “Quad” to propose a joint roadmap to end the war in Sudan. The plan includes a three-month humanitarian truce to facilitate aid flows, followed by a permanent ceasefire and a nine-month transitional period to establish a civilian-led government.
The group formed a Joint Operational Committee to coordinate efforts and to advance the roadmap, which also aims to stop external support for the two main warring factions in Sudan and to handle the humanitarian crisis.
Massad Boulos, the US senior adviser for Arab and African Affairs, organized the Quad to meet on Oct. 24 in Washington, and on the same day, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mohieldin Salem met with US officials to discuss the possible ceasefire and opening more humanitarian channels. But without the US requiring the RSF to lay down its weapons, Sudan will not cooperate in talks, it has said repeatedly.
The Sudanese government, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has rejected the peace initiative presented by the Quad, calling it “foreign intervention” that disrespects Sudan’s sovereignty.
The Sudanese rejection is partly based on the US slapping sanctions last month against Sudan’s Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim and the Al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade, an Islamist militia fighting alongside the Sudanese army. The UAE’s involvement in the Quad has also not sat well with the Sudanese authorities.
In his remarks to the Security Council, Mohamed Abushahab, the UAE ambassador to the UN, said, among other things: “The SAF walked away from the Humanitarian Truce despite intensive US and Quad efforts and unequivocal UAE support. The current escalation could have been avoided.”
(A rally is planned for Oct. 31, at 4 pm, at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, in front of the UAE consulate in New York City, “in demonstration of our refusal to sit quietly while the United States and United Arab Emirates directly facilitate the slaughter of our people,” according to the organizers, mostly NGOs.)
El Fasher, Sudan’s main city in North Darfur, fell under the control of RSF on Sunday, Oct. 26. The capture represents the last stronghold of the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and risks further fragmenting many parts of Sudan. Al Harith Idriss al Harith Mohamed, the UN envoy, described the SAF as a “rogue armed group,” and in the Security Council called for it to be designated a terrorist group. Yet, the SAF continues to harm Sudanese civilians and block humanitarian access, including kicking out two World Food Program staff this week.
“The situation is simply horrifying,” Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, a UN assistant secretary-general for Africa, told the Council on Oct. 30. “The situation is chaotic. In this context, it is difficult to estimate the number of civilians killed. Despite commitments to protect civilians, the reality is that no one is safe in el-Fasher.There is no safe passage for civilians to leave the city.”
In August, US Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) submitted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which requires the State Department, in consultation with the Treasury Department and the US Attorney General, to assess whether the RSF militia should be designated as a terrorist organization. No action has been taken on the amendment.
On Oct. 30, Risch and some bipartisan members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a statement saying, “The United States must consider the designation of the RSF as a potential Foreign Terrorist Organization or Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization, while establishing clear authorizations and mechanisms for the continued delivery of humanitarian aid.”
Cameron Hudson, an American analyst focusing on US-Africa policy, tweeted on Friday: “Bipartisan support for naming the RSF a foreign terrorist organization is growing. The other thing the Hill should do is drag @US_SrAdvisorAF [Boulos] before a Congressional committee to understand just what his strategy for Sudan is.”
On Nov. 1, Hudson told PassBlue: “If Washington is going to pressure the US the UAE over Sudan, it’s going to take certain trade-offs that I think Washington is not prepared to offer. Washington does not want to run the risk of pressuring the UAE and potentially losing out on its cooperation on something like Gaza reconstruction or pressuring Russian banks over Ukraine. Or in the competition with China over crypto and AI, all of which the UAE plays a central role as part of the United States is larger strategic interest, so sadly, I think that in order for Sudan to be elevated in Washington’s priority list with the UAE, it would have to be prepared to risk some of these other high-level interests that it has with the UAE, and I just don’t think that that’s in the cards right now.”
The UAE’s continuing ties to Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”), the leader of the RSF militia, also undermine the group’s credibility, experts say.
Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, the executive director of a Sudanese nonpartisan think tank, Fikra for Studies and Development (FikraSD), and a former adviser to the UN political mission in Sudan (UNITAMS, now closed), warned that divisions in the Quad risk prolonging the war in Sudan unless the US and its partners agree on curbing external interference.
Although US officials condemn the violence in Sudan and urge both factions to engage in talks, the language of the US regarding external backers in the war remains notably cautious. On Oct. 26, amid the RSF’s rampage, Boulos tweeted: “We call on RSF leaders to continue to issue and publicly communicate clear orders to their forces to ensure the safety of civilians, humanitarian personnel, and aid operations.”
The depths of the US-UAE relationship now defines the limits of American influence in the Horn of Africa, experts also say. From defense deals to technology partnerships, the economic alliances weaken how much pressure the Trump administration is willing to exert on outside players stoking the war, which has killed more than 150,000 people and left more than 14 million displaced from their homes, making Sudan the worst displacement crisis in the world.
This article was updated to include a new comment from Cameron Hudson, a US analyst on Africa.
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Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
Damilola, thank you for the contribution and the arsonists (EAU-Saudi Arabia and United Sates) are again the fire fighters, this is a shame for humanity! Where is the voice of the African Union? Are is the voice of African countries and regional organisations? What a shame!