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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Sparky-moon on 2026-01-26 09:18:29+00:00.

This conflict receives less media and political attention than Gaza or Ukraine. But it too is causing terrible atrocities and devastation in northeast Africa. The civil war that has been ravaging Sudan since April 2023 has claimed more than 150,000 lives and displaced more than 13 million people, according to the UN, which on January 19 referred to “an abyss of unimaginable proportions,” “a chronicle of cruelty” with crimes (rapes, executions) committed “on a massive scale” and with “unspeakable brutality.” And in this widespread hell, “the new global epicenter of human suffering” was recently located in Darfur, in the west of the country, according to the head of UN humanitarian operations, Tom Fletcher.

A tropical pandemonium where the active shadow of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its capital, Abu Dhabi, looms large. Its vice president and deputy prime minister, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan (55), owns 100% of the Newton Investment and Development fund, which controls a majority stake in the City Football Group (CFG) and its bridgehead, Manchester City (in France, Troyes, current leader of L2, is also part of the CFG).

Protests near Etihad Stadium in Manchester

The club coached by Pep Guardiola has been chaired since 2008 by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who also holds prominent positions in his country, where he is chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority, a government body that provides “strategic advice” to the president of the UAE, Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (known as “MBZ”), the elder brother of Manchester City’s owner (the Al Nahyan family has ruled the Emirates since their independence in 1971, following the end of British protectorate).

These political and sporting connections have led to regular protests, including near the Etihad Stadium, the Citizens’ home ground in Manchester, denouncing the UAE’s involvement in the civil war in Sudan, which the federal state of the Arabian Peninsula has consistently denied. We will come back to this later.

Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, his brother Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Khaldoon al-Mubarak (from left to right) at the 2023 Champions League final won by Manchester City against Inter Milan. (Tim Groothuis/Witters/Presse Sports)

The conflict in question is between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has been in de facto power since a coup in 2021, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemetti.”

Both sides are accused of abuses, to varying degrees, and of “war crimes” in fighting that reached a turning point and a new level of horror at the end of October with the fall of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the last stronghold of the Sudanese regular army in the region. The RSF is currently continuing its offensive in North Kordofan state and its capital, El Obeid, in the center of the country, at the crossroads of Darfur and the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

“Extreme suffering” in Darfur

El Fasher fell to the RSF after a siege lasting more than 540 days, marked by countless indiscriminate bombings by both sides, followed by “mass atrocities” committed by the aforementioned paramilitary troops, already accused by the UN of “widespread acts of sexual violence.”

On January 19, the Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Nazhat Shameem Khan, pointed to “an organized and calculated campaign of suffering of extreme magnitude, targeting non-Arab communities in particular.” And according to the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), “countries supporting the FSR, notably the United Arab Emirates, should pressure these forces to stop their abuses.”

Since the Rapid Support Forces took El Fasher at the end of October, nearly 20,000 Sudanese have crossed the border into Chad, according to the UN. (EPA/MaxPPP)

Several investigations, official statements, and international media reports have confirmed the involvement of the United Arab Emirates in this bloody chaos, in support of the Rapid Support Forces. In an article published at the end of June 2025, the New York Times shed light on the links between General Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemetti”), head of the RSF, and Sheikh Mansour, owner of Manchester City, notably thanks to wiretaps by US intelligence services.

Before the start of the Sudanese civil war, Sheikh Mansour had also invited General “Hemetti” to the inauguration of the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi in February 2021, which was also attended by Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader and warlord. This scene was reported at the time by the Emirati media.

A bloody gold rush

In its information report on the security situation in Sudan, published in June 2025, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) states that “the FSR received support and arms deliveries from the former Russian Wagner Group, as well as from the United Arab Emirates.”

The FSR is also said to be enriching itself “through a complex financial network controlling the gold market.” Traces of this “financial network” can be found by scrutinizing Sudanese companies subject to financial sanctions and asset freezes in the European Union and France, for example.

This is the case with the Al-Junaid holding company. On its website, the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance explains that it is controlled “by the commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and his brother, the deputy commander of the RSF, Abdul Rahim Dagalo.”

“Based in Khartoum, Al-Junaid operates subsidiaries in many economic sectors, including gold mining and trading (…) which generate a substantial source of income for the Dagalo family and the RSF, enabling them to finance and continue the conflict in Sudan,” continues the Bercy and EU fact sheet. The RSF also uses Al-Junaid’s gold production and exports to obtain military support from the United Arab Emirates, which is the destination for most of Sudan’s gold production."

“We condemn the atrocities committed by both the Port Sudan authorities and the RSF.”

An official source from the United Arab Emirates to L’Équipe

This alleged interference by the UAE is obviously denounced by the Sudanese authorities, who also point to its role “in providing material, logistical, and military support to the RSF.” Sudan even filed a complaint on March 6, 2025, with the International Court of Justice (ICJ, based in The Hague, Netherlands) against the UAE for “complicity in genocide.” This request was rejected on May 5 for technical reasons by the ICJ, which declared itself “manifestly incompetent to adjudicate the application” from Khartoum.

Under scrutiny, Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied the accusations against the country. “We categorically reject any allegation that we have provided any form of support to either of the warring parties since the start of the civil war,” said an official source in the UAE when asked about the matter. “And we condemn the atrocities committed by both the authorities in Port Sudan (the provisional seat of the Sudanese government) and the FSR.”