The statement comes amid escalating violence in western Darfur and other regions in Sudan. Human rights groups and witnesses report that the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher, which has a population of 252,000, in late October involved mass killings, kidnappings and widespread sexual violence.
On Wednesday, United Nations humanitarian aid chief Tom Fletcher, returning from Sudan, described the Darfur region as “an absolute horror show,” saying El Fasher has been turned into “a crime scene.”
The country has been engulfed in a civil war for more than two and a half years between the Sudanese Armed Forces, loyal to the government in Khartoum, and the paramilitary RSF group.
The United Nations has previously blamed the RSF for ethnic massacres and mass displacement, leading to famine and accusations of genocide in Darfur.
The Sudanese ambassador to the EU told POLITICO this week that European-made weapons are fueling atrocities, and called on EU countries to halt arms sales to the United Arab Emirates, which a U.N. panel earlier this year alleged is backing the RSF.
A UAE government official told POLITICO that Abu Dhabi “categorically rejects any claims of providing any form of support to either warring party since the onset of the civil war,” adding it “condemns atrocities committed by both” sides in the conflict.