Sudan children murdered in yet another attack

A Saudi official has attacked ‘foreign actors’ for fueling the war in Sudan. Their comment came after a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone killed 24 in Kordofan province. Fighting has displaced millions and killed up to 150,00 people.

The war is now in its third year. And the UK and others have played their part in letting the carnage run on.

The Sudan Doctors Network said RSF targeted:

a vehicle transporting displaced people fleeing South Kordofan State. The vehicle was traveling from the Dubeiker area in North Kordofan when it was attacked near Al-Rahad city.

Two infants died in the attack:

The attack resulted in the deaths of 24 people, including 8 children—two of whom were infants—and several women.

The Sudanese foreign ministry said on 8 February:

This attack does not represent an isolated incident, but rather a continuation of a pattern adopted by the militia to obstruct humanitarian work and use deprivation of food as a means of pressure against civilians.

RSF are an Arab supremacist militia given to carrying out massacres of the indigenous population of Sudan. They have also been used by the UAE as mercenaries in Yemen. Despite the UAE’s denials, Emirati military support is substantial, traceable, and decisive.

RSF and UAE

The Saudi foreign ministry also commented, thought it did not name the offenders. They said:

The Kingdom affirms that these acts are unjustifiable under any circumstances and constitute flagrant violations of all humanitarian norms and relevant international agreements.

In a clear swipe at RSF’s main backer, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), they added:

foreign interference and the continued actions of certain parties in supplying illicit weapons, mercenaries, and foreign fighters—despite their stated support for a political solution.

They said this foreign influence:

constitutes a primary factor in prolonging the conflict and exacerbating the suffering of the Sudanese people.

This is the latest development in the two oil-rich, Western allied Gulf states’ failing relationship.

UAE/Saudi confrontation

The UAE and Saudi relations are are uneasy, to say the least. The two are traditionally allies – and recipients of US and other Western support – but their falling out is being felt throughout the Gulf and the Horn of Africa.

As the Times of India has it:

For more than a decade, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi appeared virtually inseparable. They crushed Islamist movements, dictated oil markets, blockaded Qatar and presented themselves as the ultimate power brokers in the Arabian Peninsula. The two kingdoms were often described as strategic siblings, bound by shared vision, capital and a mutual obsession with stability on their terms.

But that alliance has ruptured. Yemen is one point of contention:

Riyadh seeks a unified Yemen under its influence: manageable, stable and friendly to Saudi security interests. Abu Dhabi, however, is pursuing a different vision through its backing of the Southern Transitional Council.

But that disagreement has also played out in Sudan – with deadly consequences.

Proxy war in Sudan

The Sudan war “amplified the stakes” offering:

both Gulf states an opportunity to project influence in Africa.

For the UAE:

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, controlling gold mines, smuggling routes and borderlands, became a direct conduit to resources. Gold, logistics and influence could be secured without the bureaucracy of formal state structures.

The Canary discussed the role of Sudan’s gold mines here. The Saudi regime “backed the Sudanese Armed Forces”:

not out of friendship, but fear. Saudi Arabia recognised that paramilitary backed fragmentation could set a dangerous precedent, threatening its own southern flank and regional ambition

Three years in, the war in Sudan has undoubtedly been exacerbated by Gulf interference. But other regional and global powers bear responsibility too.

Israel and Britain

Israel has backed both RSF and the Sudanese government at different times. Turkey, Egypt, and Russia have a role too. And British-sourced equipment has been seen in RSF hands, presumably a result of UK arms sales to UAE.

On October 2025, Labour foreign office minister Stephen Doughty admitted:

We are aware of reports of a small number of U.K.-made items having been found in Sudan, but there is no evidence in the recent reporting of U.K. weapons or ammunition being used in Sudan.

However he resisted calls for an embargo on UAE and said the UK would use its UN security council role:

to call for an immediate end to this violence [and] ensure that international humanitarian law is respected and upheld.

This mealy-mouthed response is typical. Not least because Campaign against the Arms Trade (CAAT) have reported:

The third largest recipient of arms export licences was the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with £172m of military equipment.

CAAT added:

Of particular concern is the £1,966,582 of exports in the military vehicles and components category, given that UK-made engines have been found in armoured personnel carriers used by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in its genocide in Sudan.

The British Labour government is deeply implicated in the killing in Sudan. And it is aligned with both sides in the Saudi/UAE proxy war. The British will likely continue to prevaricate while people die. But as long as UK arms firm CEOs and shareholders get their new yacht or third home, that seems to be fine by Keir Starmer’s Labour.

Featured image via the Canary