ICJ dismisses Sudan’s genocide case alleging UAE backing of RSF rebels | United Nations News

Top UN court says it does not have authority to rule on case accusing UAE of arming rebel Rapid Support Forces paramilitary.

The top United Nations court has dismissed a case brought by Sudan accusing the United Arab Emirates of breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s deadly civil war.

The International Court of Justice said on Monday that it “manifestly lacked” the authority to continue the proceedings and threw out the case.

While both Sudan and the UAE are signatories to the 1948 genocide convention, the UAE has a carveout to the part of the treaty that gives The Hague-based court jurisdiction.

In March, Sudan asked the ICJ for several orders, known as provisional measures, including telling the UAE to do all it can to prevent the killing and other crimes targeting the Masalit people in Darfur.

The UAE called the filing a publicity stunt and, in a hearing last month, argued the court had no jurisdiction.

“The case is baseless both legally and factually. The UAE is not involved in the war, and this case is yet another attempt by the Sudanese Armed Forces, one of the warring parties, to distract from its own responsibility,” Reem Ketait, a senior official at the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement ahead of the decision.

Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between its military and rival paramilitary forces broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions.

Both the Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s military have been accused of abuses.

The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and a US ally, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, something it has strenuously denied despite evidence to the contrary.

More to follow.