The United Arab Emirates is escalating a clandestine operation under the guise of the Red Crescent to funnel money, weapons, and, now, powerful drones to combatants raging throughout the nation, according to authorities, internal diplomatic cables, and satellite pictures obtained by The New York Times.

Aid agencies report that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force fighting Sudan's military, has attacked hospitals, plundered food supplies, and set fire to thousands of houses.

The drones, however, are flying from a location where the UAE claims to be organizing a humanitarian mission for the Sudanese people as part of its "urgent priority" to save innocent lives and prevent hunger in the war. 

According to authorities, the Emirates is playing the greatest and most crucial role in Sudan's conflict, openly promising to alleviate suffering while secretly inflaming it.

For more than a year, the Emirates has been covertly supporting the Rapid Support Forces, and a NYT investigation last year into Emirati weapons smuggling program was corroborated by UN inspectors in January, who highlighted "credible" evidence that the Emirates was violating a two-decade UN arms ban in Sudan.

An airstrip in Chad has been upgraded by the Emirates into a military-style airfield launching a powerful Chinese-made drone, the Wing Loong.

According to photographs, a Wing Loong ground control station lies alongside the runway, which is just around 750 yards from an Emirati-run hospital that has treated wounded RSF forces.

According to authorities, the drones are now providing surveillance and identifying targets on chaotic battlefields in Sudan, rather than performing their own attacks.

Experts and officials believe that after taking flight from the facility, the drones may be remotely flown from Emirati land. They were recently seen patrolling the skies over the besieged Sudanese city of El Fasher, where residents are hungry and surrounded by the RSF. 

Two American officials with knowledge of the conversation divulged that when Kamala Harris confronted Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed in December, the country's leader said he owed the paramilitary group's head, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Hamdan, for deploying forces to fight alongside the Emirates in the war on Yemen.

One American official told the NYT that the Gulf state "cant lie to us anymore, because they know that we know."

Related News

Post-colonial neoliberalism is reshaping Arab cities one by one

Flydubai airline preparing for resumption of flights to Syria

The NYT notes that the Emirates' actions appear to be part of a larger expansion into Africa. According to experts, it unveiled $45 billion in investments throughout the continent last year, and in 2021, it reversed the course of Ethiopia's civil war by sending armed drones to the Prime Minister at a critical juncture in the conflict, ultimately assisting him to victory. Now it looks to be attempting to replicate the accomplishment in Sudan with the RSF.

Last year, the UAE claimed to be establishing a field hospital for Sudanese refugees at the Amdjarass airport in Chad. However, it was soon revealed that the $20 million facility was actually treating RSF fighters, with cargo planes also delivering weapons smuggled into Sudan. Satellite imagery and flight records indicated that the UAE had set up a drone system simultaneously while promoting its humanitarian efforts.

Human Rights Watch has found evidence of Emirati-supplied weaponry on the battlefield, including Serbian-made missiles fired from an unidentified drone that were initially delivered to the UAE. "It's very clear — the U.A.E. is sending money, the U.A.E. is sending weapons," said former Chadian Prime Minister Succès Masra.

Despite objections from Western authorities, Masra advised Chad's President, Mahamat Idriss Déby, that allowing the UAE to transport weapons through the country was a "huge mistake", but the situation remained unaltered. Furthermore, an Emirati private plane recently flew Hamdan, on a tour of six African nations, where he was treated like a president. 

The US Treasury has sanctioned an RSF "front company" and is investigating seven Emirati firms for potential ties to the paramilitary group. General Hamdan’s brother, Algoney Hamdan, who has lived in Dubai since 2014 and is under US sanctions, has dismissed the sanctions and called claims the Emirates supports the group "false propaganda".

The Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent is gravely worried about the Emirati activity in Chad, having learned only through press reports that the Emirates Red Crescent had erected a hospital in Amdjarass. Tommaso Della Longa, a Red Cross spokesman, stated that the Emirati organization failed to notify the international federation, which is a breach of procedure.

The Emiratis marketed their efforts by displaying staff treating patients wearing the Red Crescent insignia, which is legally protected. The Red Cross, concerned about its impartiality, dispatched fact-finding teams to Chad in 2023 and 2024 but received few responses. Their representatives were kept away from the Emirati hospital for "security reasons".

Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International executive, stated that it was "unheard-of" for an aid group to prevent its officials from visiting a hospital that allegedly helps refugees.

In June, Emirati authorities stated that they had treated approximately 30,000 patients and were planning to expand the hospital, despite residents reporting its very short opening hours each day.

Following Macklemore's cancelation of a Dubai gig due to the Emirates' activities in Sudan, US Ambassador Tom Perriello urged a boycott of the UAE. Emirati authorities reacted angrily, with Perriello saying, "I sure didn't have Macklemore as a hero for Sudan on my bingo card."

Some US officials believed Perriello had gone too far, emphasizing the challenges of attacking the Emirates, a crucial partner of the US in numerous global issues. The Emirates has always ignored foreign criticism, but it is becoming increasingly sensitive to blowback over Sudan. According to a February European Union report, the Emiratis would be "more concerned about any damage to their reputation rather than any sense of moral culpability."

During a visit to a hospital in Chad, Emirati Minister Lana Nusseibeh was approached by a Sudanese refugee who said, "You know very well that you ignited this war!" The man escaped Sudan due to RSF brutality and expressed his rage at the official.