The United Arab Emirates has supplied advanced Chinese-made weaponry to Sudan in violation of a U.N. arms embargo, Amnesty International said in a report Thursday.
The rights group said it identified Chinese GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers among weapons seized in Khartoum. The guided bombs were manufactured by China’s state-owned Norinco Group, marking the first documented use of such munitions in an active conflict, Amnesty said.
As a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, China should block sales to the UAE to prevent arms from reaching Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group accused of ethnic cleansing, rights abuses and sexual violence, the report said.
“This is clear evidence that sophisticated Chinese-made guided bombs and howitzers have been used in Sudan,” said Brian Castner, Amnesty’s head of crisis research. He called the presence of recently manufactured Chinese bombs in North Darfur a “clear violation” of the embargo by the UAE.
“Civilians are being killed and injured because of global inaction, while the UAE continues to flout the embargo,” Castner said, referring to the U.N. ban on arms transfers to Darfur, a region now largely controlled by the RSF.
The UAE must halt arms transfers to the RSF immediately, he said, adding that international arms shipments to the UAE should also stop until it complies.
The report comes after Sudan’s security council announced Tuesday it was severing diplomatic ties with the UAE over its alleged support for the RSF. The move followed the International Court of Justice’s dismissal of a Sudanese case accusing the UAE of complicity in genocide.
Meanwhile, drone strikes pounded Port Sudan, the de facto capital and seat of Sudan’s army-backed government, starting early Sunday. The RSF, which has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces since April 2023, has not claimed responsibility for the attacks. The UAE condemned the strikes.
The drones hit Sudan’s last functioning civilian airport, damaging its roof and interior, before striking the nearby Osman Digna air base. A Sudanese army spokesperson called them “kamikaze drones,” while regional sources said the UAE had previously purchased such aircraft.
Amnesty said a Chinese-made Norinco GB50A guided bomb was among the weapons used.
The Sudanese government closed the airport Sunday before reopening it Monday, only to shut it again after another drone attack.
“The strikes on civilian infrastructure will add to the already unimaginable suffering of Sudan’s people,” said Aida Elsayed Abdallah of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society. Damage to airports and power stations, she said, hinders aid delivery of food, clean water and medical care.
The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced over 12.5 million people. Both the RSF and SAF have been accused of widespread rights violations.
Abdullahi Halakhe of Refugees International told The Associated Press last week that the UAE was enabling a “genocide” in Sudan to suppress democratic movements in the region.
“It crushed the Arab Spring, it crushed the emergence of any viable government in Libya, and its latest iteration of that is Sudan,” he said. However, he predicted the UAE would eventually abandon the RSF due to its “toxic” reputation, adding, “A collapsed Sudan is not in their interests either.”