UAE leverages humanitarian aid to advance its interests
During recent years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been intervening in different parts of the Middle East, primarily through the backing of rebel militias against legitimate and recognised governments. In some high-profile cases, the UAE has been complicit in conflicts such as in Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan; leveraging humanitarian aid to advance its interests and violating international laws. Its real end goals have been exposed behind the façade of humanitarian support.
In Sudan, the UAE has provided financial and military support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)militia, including a recent supply of foreign combatants. This assistance has substantially expanded since the conflict began. The UAE maintains significant economic and political stakes in Sudan that it anticipates will be protected if its RSF allies gain control. These interests encompass the exploitation of gold and agricultural assets, control of strategically important Red Sea ports, and blocking the return to power of Islamist groups, which the UAE have traditionally opposed.
The impact of UAE funding to the RSF militia has been devastating; it enabled the militia to wage its war in Sudan and commit numerous massacres and genocides in the Darfur region. According to UN experts, it is estimated that the militia killed 15,000 members of the Massalit tribe based on their ethnicity. In other parts of Darfur, women were raped and abducted, and children were piled up and shot to death. For months, El-Fashir city, the........© Middle East Monitor
