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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed and terminated Sudan’s case alleging that the UAE backed the Rapid Support Forces, a militant group accused of committing genocide during the African country’s civil war.
The UAE — a signatory to the Genocide Convention — opted out in 2005 of an article granting the ICJ jurisdiction to decide on disputes between states. The court said it therefore lacks jurisdiction to hear Sudan’s case.
“This decision is a clear and decisive affirmation of the fact that this case was utterly baseless,” said Reem Ketait, deputy assistant minister for political affairs at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The facts speak for themselves: the UAE bears no responsibility for the conflict in Sudan.”
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Sudan’s civil war, which began after a power struggle between two former allies who staged a coup in 2021, entered its second year last month. Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in what is now one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The UK, the European Union, and the African Union met in London in April — without Sudan’s warring parties — to discuss ways to increase humanitarian aid to the country. The UK’s foreign secretary said the biggest obstacle to peace was not the lack of aid, but a “lack of political will.”
For the UAE, the ICJ ruling follows an April 29 UN report that did not cite evidence of the country arming Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces.
Notable
- The army’s recapturing of the capital isn’t likely to end the war, Cameron Hudson, senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a Semafor column.