Sudan’s army-aligned government severed diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, declaring the Gulf nation an “aggressor state,” the Sudanese defense minister said.
In a televised speech, Yassin Ibrahim announced that Sudan was “severing diplomatic relations with the UAE,” withdrawing its ambassador and closing its embassy and consulate in the Gulf country.
He accused the UAE of violating Sudan’s sovereignty through its “proxy,” the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting the army since April 2023.
“The entire world has witnessed, for more than two years, the crime of aggression against Sudan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and the safety of its citizens by the UAE, acting through its local proxy, the terrorist RSF militia,” the minister said.
Ibrahim said the UAE escalated its involvement by supplying the RSF with “strategic advanced weapons” after the army made battlefield gains, including reclaiming control over the capital, Khartoum, in March.
He added that Sudan would “respond to the aggression by all means necessary to preserve the country’s sovereignty” and “protect civilians.”
Meanwhile, Sudan’s army leader Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, speaking in a televised address from Port Sudan that followed the announcement by the defence council, said that the army will “defeat the militia and those who support it and back it”.
“We say to those who attacked the Sudanese people that the time for retribution will come and the people will prevail in the end,” he, said while giving his address in front of a plum of smoke at the damaged port facilities.
Sudan’s army-aligned government has repeatedly accused the UAE of supplying weapons to the RSF — claims that Abu Dhabi has denied.
The decision to cut ties with the UAE came hours after drones struck Port Sudan — the country’s de facto capital, which until recently had been spared from violence — for the third consecutive day.
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million people and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.
The conflict has effectively split the country in two, with the army controlling the north, east and center, while the RSF dominates nearly all of the western Darfur region and parts of the south.