Amnesty condemns UK’s £377m arms sales to UAE as it documents RSF atrocities

Amnesty International has condemned the UK Government’s continued arms exports to the United Arab Emirates as “impossible to accept”, accusing ministers of prioritising diplomatic ties over averting mass atrocities in Sudan.

The UK – under Starmer’s government –  has approved £377 million in arms sales to the UAE since July 2024, despite being aware that these weapons could be diverted to Sudan, where the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been accused of crimes against humanity.

Amnesty warns this figure is likely a “considerable underestimate” due to unreported open licences.  These licences included equipment for combat aircraft, helicopters, drones, military vehicles, small arms and light weapons, ammunition, bombs, among others.

Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:

Our findings are unequivocal: crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing are being committed by the RSF. That the UK government is reported to have prioritised its ties with the UAE over averting mass atrocities in Sudan is impossible to accept.

In defiance of its moral responsibilities and legal obligations, the UK government continues to supply arms to the UAE, the RSF’s chief backer, without any credible assurance of compliance with the UN embargo. In doing so, it risks complicity in some of the gravest atrocities of the 21st century.

Amnesty reveal crimes against humanity

The report, titled “City Under Siege, Children Under Fire: Rapid Support Forces’ Crimes Against Humanity in North Darfur“, documents how civilians in and around El Fasher were killed, injured, beaten, tortured and detained between early 2024 and October 2025.

RSF fighters are accused of deliberately targeting children during the attacks.

The report notes that hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced, many of them repeatedly risking death and injury during attacks or while fleeing. Countless have been orphaned.

RSF’s brutal siege of the city from May 2024 to October 2025 resulted in a manufactured famine, with children bearing the brunt.

Amnesty also documented widespread RSF recruitment and use of boys, either from aligned Arab ethnic groups or abducted from non-Arab groups during attacks on villages and displacement camps.

Collective failure to prevent the El Fasher massacre

Last week, a war crimes investigator, Executive Director of  Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) Nathaniel Raymond, told the International Development Committee (IDC) the UK government chose preserving relations with the UAE over calling out atrocities in Sudan.

Raymond told the IDC that HRL privately briefed the UK’s Foreign, Development, and Commonwealth Office (FCDO) personnel, including UKUN staff, the Atrocity Prevention Team, the Sudan team, and the senior staff of then-Foreign Minister David Lammy, over two dozen times since July 2023 on the threats faced by the people of El Fasher and the Darfur region of Sudan.

Raymond said that he believed that the FCDO:

prioritized economic, security, and diplomatic relationships with the UAE above preventing the intentional starvation, forced displacement, and the genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians living in El Fasher and its surrounding communities. The failure across two successive UK administrations to stop the El Fasher massacre from occurring appears to be the result of a leadership commitment by HMG to place the strategic relationship with the UAE above the international legal obligations to prevent genocide the UK and UAE are treaty bound to uphold.

Following Raymond’s testimony, the IDC chair, Labour MP Sarah Champion, wrote to Baroness Chapman of Darlington, Minister of State (International Development and Africa) at the FCDO, demanding a response to shocking evidence concerning mass atrocities in Sudan.

Our Chair @SarahChampionMP has written to the International Development Minister demanding a response to shocking evidence provided to the Committee concerning mass atrocities in Sudan.

Read more: https://t.co/9ym6kswepc pic.twitter.com/aKkBFjw3H8

— International Development Committee (@CommonsIDC) June 25, 2026

The evidence laid out by Amnesty International and war crimes investigators presents a damning picture of the UK government, where military sales are prioritised over lives. 

Featured image via the Canary