In May, Sudan’s government severed diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi, accusing it of violating Sudanese sovereignty by supplying weapons to its “local agent,” the RSF.
The decision followed a setback for Sudan at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on May 5 dismissed a genocide case Khartoum had filed against the UAE.
Sudan had accused the Gulf nation of supplying arms and funding to the RSF, particularly in connection with ethnic violence against the Masalit people in West Darfur.
The court said it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, citing the UAE’s reservation upon joining the Genocide Convention in 2005.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has now barred Sudanese planes from landing at its airports, the African state’s SUNA news agency reported on Wednesday, days after authorities accused the Gulf nation of backing foreign mercenaries involved in hostile acts.
Earlier on Wednesday, local media reported that Sudan’s air force destroyed an Emirati aircraft allegedly carrying Colombian mercenaries as it landed at a paramilitary-held airport in Darfur, killing at least 40 people.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since 2023, when a brutal civil war erupted in the African state between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces, following a breakdown in negotiations over the framework for a transition to civilian rule.
The UN says the fighting, which has raged for more than two years, has plunged the country into the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with thousands killed.
The RSF and allied Arab militias have been accused of targeting the Masalit ethnic group and other non-Arab Sudanese in Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, killing over 10,000 people in just two months from mid-April 2023.
RT.
