UK prioritised ties with UAE over averting mass atrocities in Sudan, MPs to be told

Sudan's paramilitary RSF celebrate after seizing El Fasher in Darfur last October, which the UN said had the ‘hallmarks of genocide’ after 60,000 civilians were massacred. Photograph: AFP View image in fullscreen Sudan's paramilitary RSF celebrate after seizing El Fasher in Darfur last October, which the UN said had the ‘hallmarks of genocide’ after 60,000 civilians were massacred. Photograph: AFP UK prioritised ties with UAE over averting mass atrocities in Sudan, MPs to be told Foreign Office failed to act on warnings of genocide due to ‘pressure’ from emirates, Yale human rights investigator will tell a parliamentary select committee The British government had received intelligence that Ethiopia appeared to be supporting a genocidal militia in Sudan’s civil war as far back as 2024 but did not go public with the news for fear of upsetting the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a parliamentary committee will hear. In May 2024, officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) told Nathaniel Raymond , an American human rights investigator at Yale University, that “significant private pressure” from the UAE meant the UK would not publicly divulge information linking Ethiopia and the emirates to their support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Ethiopia’s role in Sudan’s civil war did not become public until early this year. It continues to deny involvement. In testimony to a parliamentary select committee on Tuesday, Raymond will allege that the UK government was more interested in preserving relations with the Emiratis than averting mass atrocities in Sudan . View image in fullscreen Nathaniel Raymond’s testimony will say a senior FCDO official attempted to downplay El Fasher’s death toll for ‘political’ reasons. Photograph: Lev Radin/Alamy The Commons international development committee is investigating the UK’s response to atrocity prevention after reports in the Guardian about the FCDO’s response to the RSF seizing the city of El Fasher, last year. Raymond will also focus on what he describes as the UK’s “failed efforts to prevent the mass killing” of tens of thousands of people during the RSF’s genocidal massacre in El Fasher. His testimony will include details of how a senior FCDO official attempted to downplay the huge death toll in El Fasher for “political” reasons. After El Fasher fell to the RSF, following an 18-month siege, Raymond, director of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), privately briefed the international development committee that at least 60,000 civilians had been killed . An FCDO atrocity-prevention official contacted Raymond to ask if the figure was too high. Raymond responded that his number did not include deaths from famine or the RSF’s bombardment of the city during its siege. View image in fullscreen Teams of volunteers risk their lives to look for bodies on the road from El Fasher, in an RSF-controlled area of Sudan. Photograph: Jérome Tubiana “I explained the math. I stated that, in reality,