US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged countries worldwide to take coordinated steps to block weapons from reaching Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been accused of mass killings in el-Fasher.
At the close of a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada, Rubio said the RSF had carried out widespread abuses, including killings, rape, and other forms of sexual violence against civilians.
Sudan’s military claims that the United Arab Emirates is supplying the RSF with arms and mercenaries routed through several African states. Both the UAE and the RSF have consistently denied this.
The RSF has been locked in combat with Sudan’s army since April 2023, when a struggle for power between their leaders escalated into a nationwide conflict.
Rubio’s remarks rank among the Trump administration’s strongest public criticisms of the RSF and the war in Sudan, though the practical impact remains uncertain.
A humanitarian ceasefire previously backed by the US has already been breached by the RSF, despite the group agreeing to it only a week earlier.
The RSF took control of el-Fasher last month following an 18-month blockade, giving them full control of major cities in the wider Darfur region.
Only a small share of residents managed to flee before the takeover, and reports suggest massacres occurred inside the city. Satellite images show bodies lying on the ground and large areas stained with blood.
According to US officials and aid organisations, non-Arab communities in Darfur are being systematically targeted by the RSF in what amounts to genocide.
During discussions held near Niagara Falls, Rubio said women and children in el-Fasher had faced extreme brutality.
Rubio told reporters: “They’re committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities, just horrifying atrocities, against women, children, innocent civilians of the most horrific kind. And it needs to end immediately.
“And we’re going to do everything we can to bring it to an end, and we’ve encouraged partner nations to join us in this fight.”
However, Rubio avoided directly criticising Abu Dhabi despite evidence—considered credible by the UN—that the UAE is the primary source of the RSF’s weaponry.
The Trump administration is seeking to end the conflict in cooperation with the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia—countries aligned with Sudan’s military-led government and collectively referred to as the “Quad”.
Rubio said on Wednesday, “I don’t want to get into calling anybody out at a press conference today, because what we want is a good outcome here,” though he added: “We know who the parties are that are involved [in weapons supply]… That’s why they’re part of the Quad along with other countries involved.”
In September, the Quad presented a plan for a three-month humanitarian truce, followed by a permanent ceasefire and a nine-month pathway toward civilian governance.
On Thursday, the UAE released a statement expressing “alarm at the heinous attacks against civilians by RSF forces in El Fasher”.
The UAE also accused Sudan’s army of “starvation tactics, indiscriminate bombardment of populated areas, and the reported use of chemical weapons”.
The military has previously rejected those accusations.
The RSF agreed to the ceasefire only after securing control of el-Fasher. Sudan’s army, despite objecting to the UAE’s involvement in the Quad, says it is still reviewing the proposal.
Fighting in the area has continued without interruption.
Rubio dismissed RSF claims that rogue fighters were responsible for the violence, insisting the group’s actions were deliberate and coordinated.
Asked about his assessment of the scale of atrocities, he said the US fears thousands of people who were expected to escape el-Fasher are either dead or too weakened by hunger to flee.
He added that the RSF depends heavily on foreign supplies due to lacking domestic weapons production, urging countries providing support to halt shipments.
The RSF responded with a lengthy statement accusing critics of issuing “all biased statements against them”.
The group again denied receiving assistance from external actors and claimed others were attempting to blame them in order to distract from the army’s rejection of the ceasefire.
“The party that has rejected all ceasefire initiatives and refused to engage in them is the army affiliated with the terrorist Islamic Movement,” it said, “while our forces responded in good faith officially announcing their approval. Yet to this day we have not received any reply from the US side. So, where is the other party and where is its response?”
The G7’s joint statement also condemned the escalating conflict in Sudan, saying the war between the RSF and Sudan’s army has created “the world’s largest humanitarian crisis”.
More than 150,000 people have been killed so far, and around 12 million have been uprooted from their homes.
Experts have extensively documented how weapons continue to flow into Sudan over the course of the two-year conflict.
Amnesty International reports evidence of weapons manufactured in Serbia, Russia, China, Turkey, Yemen and the UAE being used in the fighting.
A leaked UN expert report indicates that smuggled weapons often travel through the UAE, then to Chad, and finally into Darfur.
The UAE is specifically accused of providing arms to the RSF, who are also alleged to sell illicit gold through Emirati channels.
On Wednesday, Rubio stressed that assistance to the RSF “isn’t just coming from some country that’s paying for it – it’s also coming from countries that are allowing their territory to be used to ship it and transport it”.
He added that other actors also play a role in the conflict, saying “that includes potentially the Iranians, at least money and weapons being flown into the other side”, referring to Sudan’s army.
All sides have denied these claims.
Two weeks ago, the UK government faced criticism from lawmakers following reports that British-made weapons were being used by the RSF to carry out atrocities.
In response to a call from an MP to “end all arms shipments to the UAE until it is proved that the UAE is not arming the RSF”, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The UK has extremely strong controls on arms exports, including to prevent any diversion. We will continue to take that immensely seriously.”
Although Darfur has been under a UN arms embargo since 2004, human rights groups say it has never been extended to the rest of Sudan.
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