UAE adviser slams Sudan’s ICJ case as ‘farcical’

A senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official has dismissed Sudan’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a ‘farcical action’, accusing the de-facto Sudan government of distorting the truth.

Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, launched a fierce defence of his country’s position in an op-ed published by The National, a UAE-based English-language newspaper, ahead of Thursday’s public hearings at the ICJ in The Hague.

Sudan filed the case on March 6, accusing the UAE of violating the Genocide Convention by supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which stands accused of mass atrocities against the Masalit people in West Darfur, from April to November 2023.

In June 2023, Radio Dabanga reported the shocking testimony from Mujeebelrahman Yagoub, the Assistant Commissioner for Refugees in West Darfur, who states that corpses were piling up in the streets, with entire families exterminated and buried in mass graves.

The West Darfur Doctors Union echoed the horror, stating, “What happened in Rwanda in 1994 is now being repeated in El Geneina.”

Human Rights Watch further reported that the ethnic cleansing in West Darfur’s capital of El Geneina had claimed the lives of thousands and left hundreds of thousands displaced as refugees.

“We unequivocally condemn the atrocities committed by both parties and call for their immediate cessation,” Gargash wrote, while rejecting Sudan’s claims.

He called the legal move “a political game and publicity stunt – an attempt to drag a longstanding friend of Sudan and Africa into the conflict they themselves have fuelled.”

“This follows the SAF’s absurd actions at the UN Security Council, which were similarly built on fabrications, falsehoods and fiction,” he added.

The case alleges the UAE provided military, financial and political support to the RSF in its war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which began in April 15 2023, a claim supported by UN monitors but repeatedly denied by the UAE.

During the UN Security Council’s 9,611th meeting in April last year, Sudan’s Permanent Representative, El Harith Idriss Mohamed, directly alleged UAE involvement. In response, the UAE dismissed the accusations and evidence as “baseless allegations.”

Gargash urged both sides to return to peace talks. “This war can end today if both sides agree to disengage and accept the repeated offers for talks made by the international community and trusted partners.”

The UAE is expected to contest the admissibility of the case at the hearings.