THE UK Government has been accused of "defying legal obligations" in its arms exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a damning new report.
Amnesty International has concluded that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has the UAE as its biggest backer, has committed "crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing" during its campaign to seize El Fasher in North Darfur state in Sudan.
The report from the human rights organisation, published on Thursday, noted that the UK Government has "long been aware" of the risk of diversion for weapons sent to the UAE to be used in conflict zones.
It further points out that reports of British-linked weapons used in Sudan have already been "well-documented".
However, despite this the current UK Government has licenced some £377 million worth of weapons to the UAE since entering power in 2024, according to official arms trade data.
Amnesty warned that this is likely to be a "considerable underestimate" of the real value. This is because at least 20 open licences were approved, which allow unlimited multiple shipments, but the values of those licences have not been reported.
In addition, official reporting only publishes figures up to December 31, 2025, and there is currently no reported data for the whole of 2026.
The licences which were approved included equipment for combat aircraft, helicopters, drones, military vehicles, small arms light weapons, ammunition, bombs, missiles and other ordnance, target acquisition and fire control systems, as well as a range of internal security and policing equipment.
Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK's chief executive, said: “In North Darfur, civilians are being killed, starved and displaced on a catastrophic scale – and the world has largely looked away.
“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."
The UK Government "can no longer carry on with its business-as-usual approach", Moscogiuri said, as "civilians pay the price".
"Children have been shot while fleeing, abducted and raped, forcibly recruited into armed groups, and left to starve under siege conditions where food was deliberately blocked from reaching civilians," they added.
Moscogiuri went on: “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."
They said that in doing so, the UK Government "risks complicity in some of the gravest atrocities of the 21st century".
“Amnesty International is calling on the UK government go beyond calls for a ceasefire, and push for the establishment of an international protection force in Sudan," Moscogiuri continued.
"As it should have done long ago, it now must also halt all arms transfers to the UAE.”
Amnesty's report, which is 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 as the RSF fought the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied Joint Forces in a war that devastated the region.
The report notes the RSF’s crimes included murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination and persecution.
Hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced as a result, many of them repeatedly risking death and injury during attacks or while fleeing, and countless have been orphaned.
People with disabilities and older people have faced acute risks, including targeted attacks, abandonment, and exclusion from essential assistance.
For the report, Amnesty interviewed 247 people, including including 208 survivors (169 adults and 39 children) who experienced or witnessed conflict-related abuses.
The report also contains open-source analysis, including 89 videos and analysis of satellite imagery from North Darfur.
The UK Government was approached for comment.
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