Marco Rubio calls for international action to reduce arms supplies to RSF

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for international action to stop weapons supplies to the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is accused of committing genocide in El Fasher.

After a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Canada, Rubio said RSF had committed systematic atrocities, including murder, rape and sexual violence, against civilians.

Sudan’s military has accused the United Arab Emirates of supporting the RSF with weapons and mercenaries sent through African countries. The UAE has repeatedly denied these claims.

The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese military since April 2023, when a power struggle between its leaders led to a full-blown civil war.

It’s unclear how much impact Rubio’s call will have. A US-backed humanitarian ceasefire proposal in Sudan has already been violated by RSF, despite it agreeing to it last week.

El-Fasher was captured by the RSF last month after an 18-month siege. This means the RSF now controls every city in the vast western Darfur region.

Only a few people escaped from the city where the massacre is said to have occurred. Satellite images show piles of corpses on the ground and blood-soaked ground visible from space.

Non-Arab groups in the wider Darfur region are being systematically targeted by RSF in what amounts to genocide, according to the United States and humanitarian groups.

At a meeting near Niagara Falls on Monday, America’s top diplomat said the RSF had committed some of the most horrific acts against women and children in El Fascher.

Prime Minister Rubio told reporters: “They are committing sexual violence, atrocities and horrific atrocities against women, children and innocent civilians of the most horrific kinds, and this must stop immediately.

“And we will do everything we can to put an end to this, and we encourage our partner countries to join the fight.”

But Rubio stopped short of publicly criticizing Abu Dhabi. This despite evidence presented in international media investigations that the UN found credible that the Gulf state was a major arms supplier to the RSF.

The Trump administration is working with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as the UAE, allies of Sudan’s military-led government, to end the war.

The four countries are known as the “Quad.” In September, the two men proposed a three-month humanitarian ceasefire, followed by a permanent ceasefire and a nine-month transition to civilian rule.

RSF waited until it captured El-Fasher before announcing that it agreed to a ceasefire. Sudan’s military says it opposes the UAE’s participation in the Quad but will still consider the proposal.

Meanwhile, the fighting did not stop.

The Secretary of State dismissed attempts by paramilitary groups to blame the killings on hoodlums, saying this was false and the attacks were systematic.

Asked by the BBC for an assessment of the scale of the atrocities, he said the United States was concerned that thousands of people who had been expected to flee El Fasher had died or were too malnourished to move.

He said the RSF lacked its own weapons manufacturing facilities and was dependent on external support, and called on the country to stop supplying weapons to it.

The G7 joint statement also condemned the surge in violence in Sudan, saying the conflict between the army and the RSF has sparked “the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”

So far, more than 150,000 people have lost their lives, and around 12 million have had no choice but to flee their homes.

Several experts have analyzed the process by which weapons were introduced into the country during the two-year civil war.

Amnesty International said it had found evidence that weapons manufactured in Serbia, Russia, China, Turkey, Yemen and the UAE were being used in Sudan.

According to a leaked report by a UN expert, smuggling routes often go through the UAE and then Chad to Darfur.

In particular, the UAE has been accused of providing weapons and support to RSF, which is accused of using the UAE as a market for illegal gold sales.

All parties deny these claims.

Two weeks ago, the British government came under fire from its own lawmakers over claims that British-made weapons had fallen into the hands of the RSF and been used to commit atrocities.

Responding to one lawmaker’s call to “stop all arms shipments to the UAE until it can be proven that the UAE is not arming the RSF”, then Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The UK has very strong controls on arms exports, including to prevent any diversion. We will continue to take this seriously.”

There has been a UN arms embargo on Darfur, RSF’s stronghold, since 2004, but despite calls from human rights groups, the embargo has not been extended to the rest of the country.